


I Saw An Angel, He Was Shaped Like You

by MelisandreStark



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, a linzin kidfic basically, cute ?, this has been in my files for ages
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:17:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 27,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23400667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelisandreStark/pseuds/MelisandreStark
Summary: Au where Lin and Tenzin stay together and make more compromises for each other--short stories that feed together to make one bigger one.
Relationships: Lin Beifong/Tenzin
Comments: 42
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have more in the drafts but idk when I'll get around to updating so apologies mates

i

When Kiyo Beifong, Avatar Aang’s first grandchild is born, the Avatar cannot quite contain himself.

It’s a momentous occasion not only for the whole family but also for the entire world. He can remember as clear as day how similar this is to when Bumi was born; the anticipation is unnerving except Aang finds he can almost enjoy it now since the looming parenthood isn’t crippling him with anxiety. Being a grandparent should be a breeze—Zuko and Mai dote on little Iroh and his new sister in a way that would be outright spoiling if they were the parents, much to Izumi’s dismay—and Aang and Katara are very excited to do exactly the same thing to their new little one.

Truth be told he’d almost given up on the prospect of a grandchild given, well, the state of his other children, and Lin’s previous firm stance on the topic. That only makes _this_ ever more exciting.

Toph and Sokka, who are sitting by him, are laying down on the grass in exhaustion but unable to fall asleep in equal levels of excitement. It’s summer so the warmth of the day still lingers in the dark, and his metalbending friend had insisted that they were all acting like a bunch of girls pacing in the house, so forced them all out. “My grand _daughter,_ ” Toph says, hands rested behind her head. “Is gonna be the best earthbender of her generation, mark my words.”

Sokka snorts. “ _Airbender_ and _grandson._ I’m not losing 50 yuans to you this time.”

“As if my genes would give out to Twinkle Toes’.” She snorts, gesturing at Aang, who smiles back at her. The truth is he’ll be happy no matter what with his grandchild but would be lying if he said he isn’t hoping for an airbender. Not that they’d even be able to tell until much later on, of course.

“I can’t believe they’ve been at it thirteen hours. This is starting to get real dull.” Toph sighs, shaking her head.

“You took 37 hours with Lin.” Aang says, raising an eyebrow, not that Toph will be able to see it. Sokka snorts and Toph sits up, scowling.

“Don’t remind me. That’s why I was so relaxed when Su came but it took her half an hour; she fell out the boat on the way to Katara.” Aang still remembers rushing to the boat to see Toph looking rather dazed with the new-born Su practically hanging out of her, saying ‘Twinkle Toes, I think we’ve got a problem’.

The moon is out, a full moon, and shining out on the island. Katara and Tenzin are inside with Lin and Kya has just gone inside to get something to eat. Technically speaking, she should really be assisting her mother with the birth but for modesty’s sake Lin had adamantly insisted that the people with her must be the bare minimum; even then, she was extremely uncomfortable with Katara poking about her private parts. Not that Kya’s really protested on that front, understandably.

(She’s really just here because she broke up with her girlfriend and has been looking for an excuse to get out of the south pole.

And to be a supportive sister. Yep, definitely that too).

The young waterbender comes out holding a piece of fruit looking far too happy with herself. Aang looks at her sceptically. “Kya?”

“What?” She replies innocently.

“Your heartbeat’s going mad, something’s made you happy. My grandchild isn’t here, is she?”

“No. You’ll hear mother squealing with excitement when that happens.” Kya smiles, sitting down with them. “I peeked in the room, you know, just to see how they’re doing. Thought Lin would kill me but she’s a little preoccupied—but you should see Tenzin’s face, _honestly._ It’s like he’s in a warzone for the first time.”

“Hopefully it’s the closest he’ll ever get to a warzone. Pansy couldn’t handle it.” Toph snorts. “How’s my daughter going?”

“You’d know if you went in there with her.” Sokka says before Kya can reply, pushing Toph playfully while the earthbender scowls.

“She said, and I _quote_ : ‘Mother, I want you nowhere near me when I’m in labour otherwise I’ll break your arm, there’s no way I want you seeing me all sweaty and screaming.’—to which I said, obviously, ‘Well I won’t _see_ anything,’ and then she punched me on the shoulder.” Toph recounts. “I’m unwanted.”

“I think you should go.” Kya chimes, and Toph frowns.

“Did you not just hear anything I said?”

“I think that, if I’m honest, she’s a lot more nervous that she’s letting on. I didn’t see much but…I think you’d be much more welcome in there than you think, or than Lin will ever admit. There’s no harm in trying.”

“There is harm if she _breaks my arm._ ”

“Just go, Toph. At the very least you’ll be able to find out what’s going on.” Aang looks up at her.

“And aren’t you always saying she never picked up bending as well as you wanted her to? I’m sure you can take her, she’s pretty preoccupied at the moment.” Sokka grins.

There’s a moment of silence before Toph scowls again and stands up. “ _Fine._ But if I come back with a broken arm none of you will live to see this kid. That applies to you to, sweetness.” She points an accusing finger at Kya who can’t quite wipe the grin off her face. Aang watches with excitement as the metalbender stalks off back to the main house with her arms crossed moodily. It doesn’t take long before she can hear Lin crying out, something that does make her heart hurt ever so slightly (not that she’s ever going to admit that).

“Okay, you need to push when that contraction hits, Lin.” She hears Katara say as she approaches the room.

“I-I can’t…” She hears Lin stutter, clearly exhausted. Toph shakes her head and pushes the door open.

“Like hell you can’t, you’re a _Beifong._ ” She commands and everyone looks at her wide eyed. “Come on, kid, don’t go giving up now.”

She expects Lin to argue but apparently underestimated quite how delirious her daughter would be, damned Kya was right, and her daughter looks at her with a certain relief. “Now come on, do as Katara says. Don’t let this kid beat you.”

Lin nods taking a deep breath as she pushes, Tenzin urging her on one side and Toph the other. This goes on for another good forty-five minutes until, finally, the cries of a new born fill the room.

“It’s a boy!” Katara declares as she starts to clean him up. Toph mutters ‘rats’ but no one hears her, attention otherwise occupied.

The waterbender put the baby in Lin’s waiting arms, her eyes shining with tears of relief and joy— Tenzin just looking at the little squished purple creature in her arms in awe, crying with her. Katara is fully weeping with happiness—after so long of hoping avidly for a grandchild after it became clear that both Kya and Bumi were going to remain childless it feels like more than she could ever hope for. Before Toph can protest, the master waterbender pulls her into a tight hug.

“Alright, alright, settle it down.” Toph exclaims in surprise but does return the hug with a smile. It’s weird to think that the little scraggly thing her daughter’s holding onto is as much part of Katara is it is her. Unable to contain her excitement, Katara approaches them.

“Do you mind if I go tell the others? They’ll be so happy!”

Tenzin looks at Lin to reply. “You can,” She says, sounding as exhausted as she looks. “But…maybe, don’t let them in just yet? I just…want to little time before.”

“Of course, of course.” Katara nods, before practically skipping out the room.

There’s a moment of silence before Tenzin lets out a little chuckle. “Look! he moved his little hand.”

Lin beams and gently, hesitantly, leans forward to kiss the baby on the forehead. She then looks up to her mother, who is standing in the corner picking at her nails not quite sure what to do with herself. “Don’t you want to hold him, mom?”

“I’d give Arrowhead over there a whack at it first, he’s dying to hold the little tyke.”

“Aunt Toph,” Tenzin says, looking amused. “Come over here. Hold your grandson.”

She didn’t anticipate that she’d be so emotional about this and silently curses herself for it, sucking it up and walking over to her daughter and holding her arms out as to properly support him. He wriggles a little and makes a noise of complaint at being removed from his mother but settled quickly as Toph sways ever so gently. Tears prick at her eyes and bites her lip. “He looks just like you, Lin.”

The new mother rolls her eyes. “He’s got Beifong hair on his head and his eyes are blue but Aunt Katara says that might change. If anything, I’d say he looks like Sokka with lighter skin.”

Toph snorts to hide the lump in her throat, as she runs her finger along the side of her grandson’s face, trying to build a proper image of him. “He’ll be _delighted_ to hear that. You aren’t still gonna name him –oh, what was it?—Chan! Yeah, Chan—stupid name, by the way.”

“I never wanted to name him that.” Lin chimes and points to Tenzin. “All him.”

“Sounds about right.”

“Chan is not _that bad._ ” Tenzin crosses his arms defensively. “But we decided on Kiyo instead.”

“Kiyo?” Toph presses a kiss to his forehead, the same as Lin did, and hands him back. “I like that. Kiyo Beifong, next in line of metalbending badasses.”

* * *

ii

Kiyo’s just over three months old when Lin decides to go back to work. It’s hard; she’s spent the entirety of her son’s new life so close to him, and while she’s not abandoning him at all, it’s still much more difficult to pull herself away than expected.

So that’s why she sits by his crib early in the morning, armour already on, and gently holds her hand over him as he tries to grab at her fingers with his little hands—toothless mouth spread out in a beam. His eyes have darkened into the same dark grey as his father’s, and his skin is somewhat reminiscent of Bumi’s even though his uncle hasn’t been able to find time off to meet his nephew yet. Lin knows that perhaps she’s very bias, but Kiyo is definitely the cutest, sweetest baby in the world. Sure, he screams when he needs something but overall he’s calm and happy and giggly. Not to be cliché, but he’s quite literally the light of Lin’s life.

“I’m gonna be at work today, kid.” She says quietly to Kiyo, who makes a happy gurgle in response to her voice. “But I promise I’ll come back before you know it. I’ll always come back.”

Lin leans down and kisses him softly on the forehead, and it almost physically hurts her to leave but she does, forcing each step away from the nursery and out of the house, onto the boat and over to the office.

And once she gets back to her office, she does relax significantly; like she’s forgotten just how much of a pillar this job is in her life, how much it keeps her going. Being Chief means she’s in charge of protecting the defenceless, like Kiyo, who would be lost without protection and guidance. Saikhan, who’s been acting as Chief while she was gone, greets her warmly upon her arrival.

“Welcome back, Detective.” He says with a smile and it seems all the metalbenders are happy to see her.

“We missed ya, Beifong!” A young recuit named Manchu pipes up.

“Don’t go leaving us again!”

“We can finally go back to a _real_ detectives, eh, Sai?”

Saikhan shoots a look to Cheng, who made the last comment, but still looks relatively happy. Lin is slightly overwhelmed by the welcome—she’s always cared for the metalbenders around her a lot but never imagined that their comradery might run onto the lines of friendship. All her friends prior to this have just been Tenzin’s friends, really, considering the fact that her intense career often leaves precious little time for a social life. She’s going to make an active effort to not dedicate quite so much time to the force since her priorities are different now.

“It…it’s good to be back.” She manages, smiling at her officers. “I’m here now, so no more slacking—I’m sure this has been the easiest five months of your careers.”

Saikhan rolls his eyes, and there are a few chuckles from various desks, and Lin takes her cue to go towards the staircase up to her office. Saikhan and few other senior officers follow her, prepared to give her a thorough briefing of what she’s missed to start with before they can move on; Lin cannot help but feel how refreshingly familiar this all is, and is truly enjoying being back.

The overwhelming missing of her son doesn’t kick in until about 2:00 while she’s evaluating some writeups of recent triad-related court cases. Kiyo normally gets hungry around 2, and she’d make a bottle up for him and then he’d probably need changing, and then…

Her hands hovering over the phone before she even realises what’s going on. Kiyo’s _fine,_ she knows this rationally; Tenzin’s quit his job to care for him full time, and Katara’s on the island too to help not to mention the other dozens of acolytes. Lin’s son probably has the most carers possible in all of Republic City but that’s not stopping her from worrying so muttering a curse under her breath Lin dials for home.

Tenzin picks up, as expected. “Hello, this is Tenzin speaking.”

“It’s me.” Lin says.

“Lin! How’s it going, are you settling back in well?”

“Yeah, great, fine,” She waves it off. “It Kiyo okay? Is he eating well, and sleeping?”

“He’s a little startled to not have you with us, but he’s fine Lin, I promise.” Tenzin tells her softly. “Spent a couple hours with my parents, and now he’s sleeping.”

A weight she didn’t know was there drops off Lin’s shoulders. “T-That’s good. Good. I’ll…I’ll be back for half seven.”

“I’ll make dinner for you. I love you, Lin, and Kiyo does too.”

Despite herself, the metalbender smiles ever so slightly. “Love you too, Airhead.”

She hangs up, sighing deeply, relieved to hear that Kiyo’s alright, but almost finding herself not quite able to believe it without seeing him in person. Still, she’ll be able to see him tonight so there’s hardly any point being a baby about it.

Two arrests and a few hours of paperwork later, Lin Beifong practically runs into her house desperate to see her son. She finds him in a cushioned metal baby basket that her mother had made a few weeks after he was born, sitting happily while Tenzin sits next to him looking at finances. He looks up as soon as he sees her and goes over to hug her.

“How was your day?” He asks, holding her tight. Had anyone else held her like this it would have made Lin feel out of place and uncomfortable, but this is Tenzin, so it has the opposite effect.

“Better now.” She pulls away and gives him a quick peck on the lips before going over to her son. She bends her armour off into a pile on the floor and then scoops him up, the baby makes a delighted noise at the reunion with his mother. “That’s right kid, I’m back.” She grins at the babbling baby, holding him out in front of her and bouncing him up and down, feet just brushing against the table. She then pulls him against her chest, kissing him gently on the top of his head. “I missed you, kid.” Lin mutters, almost too softly for Tenzin to hear.

* * *

iii

After keeping Kiyo essentially trapped for the first year and a half of his life, Tenzin and Lin mutually decide that it’s time to finally let the world get a glimpse of the only child of one of the last airbenders. If Lin had the choice then she’d rather they not ever do this at all but it’s getting impractical to have Kiyo hidden at home when they both have to do something at the same time, even with Katara and Aang often there to watch him, and they’d rather do it this way than have the paparazzi take sneaky shots of him and make assumptions about their future plans regarding the future of the air nation.

Besides, as Katara reminds them, it’s important to give the people hope about the future, and whether they like it or not they and Kiyo are in the Avatar’s family—and for the world, the Avatar is that symbol. Lin doesn’t see this as a valid enough reason to expose her poor son to the cruel world of journalists just yet but can concede that if nothing else, she owes Aang this.

They’re holding a relatively small press conference to discuss the matter, hosted by Aang and Tenzin exclusively but Kiyo will be expected to make an appearance and Lin will be damned before she lets him out of her sight with all those bloodthirsty journalists. That’s why she’s currently trying to wrangle him into his nice clothes—a set of yellow earth-style clothes that don’t really reflect any nation in particular.

“No Mama!” Kiyo cries as he tries to climb up on his bed, in nothing but his nappy, clutching his stuffed badgermole to his chest (a gift from Grandma Toph, who’s still betting on him being an earthbender). Lin, of course, would be happy either way—Kiyo being an airbender would mean everything to Tenzin and Aang and the need of airbenders is, after all, one of the big reasons why Lin agreed to have a child in the first place. But her poor son will have to endure so much pressure from the public, from the white lotus, from his family should he turn out to be an airbender and after seeing what that pressure did to Tenzin…Lin doesn’t wish that on her son.

She feels a little guilty for thinking that, but it’s unavoidable.

“Yes, now get over here and let me put your pants on.” Lin says, sighing. Kiyo manages to get a leg up and her eyes go wide in worry that he’ll fall and hurt herself, so she picks him up and pulls him away.

“Nuh-uh!” He protests, reaching back with a pout. Lin presses a big kiss to his temple, and he squeals as she starts to tickle him. “No—Mama-ah!” He squeals excitedly, wriggling out her grasp with a big smile on his face.

“I bet we can’t put all your clothes on in one minute.” She says, setting him back down on the floor. “I bet you’re too slow.”

The boy’s eyebrows furrow and in gritty Beifong determination, he declares: “I can does it!”

“Are you sure? I’m not.” Lin says, raising an eyebrow and sitting down on the floor next to him. She picks up the pants again. “Now come on. Let’s see how quick you are.”

Kiyo rushes over to her and lifts his legs to she can slide the pants on, and the rushes to get his little tunic, pulling it over his head by himself but getting stuck in one of the armholes. “Mama!”

Lin chuckles. “Hey, hey, stop struggling.” She says, detangling him and sliding it on properly. “And look at that, that only took fifty seconds. I was wrong—you might be the speediest boy in the world, Ki.”

“Yes!” He says, looking very proud of himself. His crop of black hair was trimmed a few weeks ago so he’s looking quite put together, or as put together as he can look considering he’s eighteen months old, so it makes no real difference when Lin musses his hair affectionately.

Looking up at the clock, Lin picks him up and puts him on her hip. “Now let’s go find your Daddy and Gramps, eh?”

Kiyo nods enthusiastically, leaning up to play with a stray lock of her hair. Normally she keeps her shoulder length hair in a ponytail since it’s practical but since it’s her day off she let it loose, it seems to entertain her son if nothing else. The press conference is taking place just outside the temple, a table has been set up and the select reporters they allowed have heard Tenzin and Aang speech about their plans for the air nation and are in the Q and A section now. Lin must have done hundreds of press conferences in her career—after a while the repetitive and intrusive questions do become tedious—but admits to herself that this particular one does make her a little more nervous due to how personal it is in nature. Still, there’s no avoiding it now, so she stops just before the door that leads them out.

“There’s going to be a lot of people out there, Kiyo.” Lin tells him, in a serious yet caring tone. “And it might be a little scary. But I’m here, and Daddy and Gramps are out there waiting for us, and I promise that nothing is going to hurt you, okay?”

He nods with a very Beifong air of confidence, and Lin feels a little surge of pride at that. With a deep breath, Lin pushes the door opens and feels herself squint at the bright flashes of cameras that hit her straight away, hand going to cover Kiyo’s eyes. He’s been around cameras before, so he’s not scared by it—it’s the first time Lin finds herself not entirely resenting Tenzin and his own camera that he whips out at any and every opportunity even when she’d really rather he didn’t—but tenses a little in Lin’s arms.

Aang and Tenzin stand up at their appearance and Tenzin goes to them, he stands next to Lin and puts a gentle hand on her lower back. “This is Kiyo, Chief Beifong and I’s son.” He introduces formally.

“Chief! Chief Beifong!”

“Can we get a shot of you kissing the boy?”

“Is he an airbender?”

“How many more children are you planning on, Chief?”

“Now, now.” Aang says, holding his hands out. “How about we take questions one at a time.” Kiyo’s grandfather walks over to them almost protectively, and once the flashes die down, he gestures to one journalist to speak.

“Chief Beifong,” He says, pad and pen poised to write. “How does it feel to be the last hope for the airbending race?”

Lin squints. “Inform me if I’m wrong, but Avatar Aang has _three_ children, not one. All of which carry the airbending gene; I’m hardly the last hope.”

The next in line raises their hand. “How do you respond to public criticism regarding your marital status; after all, it’s known that children born out of wedlock are very unpredictable.”

“I was born out of wedlock, and I am in charge of all of your protection on a daily basis. Children born out of wedlock are the same as children born in wedlock—my response to such baseless superstitious opinions is to ignore them.” She answers as diplomatically as possible.

“Is your son an airbender?” Another asks.

“He has shown no signs of bending yet, but it’s very early for that, as I said earlier.” Tenzin answers for her. Kiyo himself is looking slightly uncomfortable, fidgeting in his spot on his mother’s hip.

“If your son fails to have airbending abilities, shall you try again?”

“No comment.” Lin bites out. That’s hardly a conversation she wants to be having in public, especially since her and Tenzin haven’t had in private yet.

“Since it is your duty to carry the future of the airbending race—” Another starts but doesn’t get to finish as Lin’s eyebrows shoot up.

“My _duty_?” She asks, scowling. “My son is a product of love, a product of Master Tenzin and I deciding that we’d like to start a family together. Duty has nothing to do with it whatsoever, and to suggest so is quite frankly offensive to me and to my child. I suggest you rephrase your question, sir.” Part of her almost expects Tenzin or Aang to scold her for being abrasive but instead she gets a pair of supporting glances; that instils a certain boost of confidence in her.

“Assuming that Kiyo is not an airbender, and you have no more children.” The same journalist says. “Will you do your duty to Master Tenzin’s race and allow him to have more children with another?”

Lin feels her blood boil at the suggestion and grits her teeth. “No comment.”

“Surely, you cannot be so selfish to—”

“Stop!” Lin says, glaring at the journalist who looks startled. To her surprise, Kiyo sits up in her arms looking as menacing as an eighteen-month-old can.

“Stop!” He repeats, pushing his hand out in a punching motion, like an earthbender would. To everyone’s surprise a blast of air fire right into the offending journalist’s face, knocking him back into the floor. There’s a long moment of complete silence where everyone just stands in shock, staring at Kiyo who doesn’t seem to quite understand what just happened.

“Oh my.” Lin whispers, so quietly that only Kiyo can hear. “You’re an airbender, kid.”

The next noise is a literal squeal from Aang, and an excited jump from Tenzin who practically snatches Kiyo from Lin and throws him up in the air in glee. The journalists are back at their photos—Lin can almost already see tomorrow’s headlines—but finds that’s the last thing on her mind.

Both Aang and Tenzin look utterly starstruck; she hasn’t Tenzin look so happy since he saw Kiyo for the first time. Kiyo himself seems happy with this new attention, though likely doesn’t understand what it’s all about. He’s young to be starting to bend, but Lin supposes that it’s not overly uncommon; she herself started bending around his age, but in general 2 is when it becomes normal to start bending.

And she’s happy, she’s really happy that he’s an airbender. It’s everything that Tenzin and Aang could have dreamed of; it’s the main reason why she took Tenzin’s request to have children so seriously in the first place. It’s also a relief—because as much as she rejects and ignores the things that she journalists say it does get to her sometimes. Had he not had an airbender then who knows what Tenzin would have ended up doing, it’s always been a fear of hers that they’ll have a family but end up with no airbenders—that Tenzin abandons her for another younger, fertile girl who can give him what Lin can’t. Kiyo airbending is her ticket to a long happy life with her son and Tenzin, it’s the key to the life Lin’s so desperate for.

But even deeper that, she hasn’t seen Aang so happy in a long time. Rebuilding the air nation is his greatest dream and, for him, there is no greater gift than another of his race. He would love his grandson no matter what but the fact that he’s an airbender just confirms that his people have a chance when he’s gone, that his culture will be upheld by more than just the acolytes, that everything he’s spent his life tirelessly working towards is coming to fruition.

It makes Lin feel indescribably happy that she’s been able to give Tenzin and Aang this, that she’s been able to give them hope. She loves Kiyo with all her heart, and would do anything for him, but the real _reason_ why she had him in the first place was for the last airbenders and so to know that her decision wasn’t in any way in vain is reassuring.

Another thing that’s nice is that’s there’s now no pressure to have another child. Tenzin hasn’t asked about it, out of respect likely but the time for that conversation is slowly coming nearer the older Kiyo gets. The entire idea of siblings for him does make Lin uncomfortable mostly due to the bitterness she has in her relationship with Su, and the fact that Tenzin doesn’t get on particularly well with his siblings either. She would hate to have her children torn apart like that, can imagine how hard it must be for her own mother to see her daughters so separate and cut off from one another (not that Toph Beifong would ever show something like that). In terms of a second child Lin might have been more tolerant to the idea should Kiyo have turned out to be an earthbender or nonbender but now she has a freedom to do whatever she likes.

That’s something she’ll probably revel in more once the journalists are gone, and on that note, she starts to clear them off the island. They’ve all got likely a lot more to write about that anticipated, whether that’s a good thing or not Lin remains unsure but it’s hardly the time to reminisce about what could have been. Taking the cue that the press conference is done (Tenzin and Aang are hardly in a fit state to continue, their excitement is all-consuming) Lin ushers the journalists back to the ferry, relieved that the whole ordeal is over.

Later on, once Kiyo’s been put to bed after being coaxed into bending for the rest of the day (it’s fruitless, he’s more confused than anything else, but he’s an airbender and only one and a half so his father and grandfather don’t seem to mind) Lin decides to call her mother and tell her the good news.

“A what?” Toph chokes through the phoneline, as if Kiyo had just miraculously turned out to have a tail instead of being an airbender. “But he was built like a rock, that boy! Damnit, I can’t believe Sokka won that bet on both fronts.”

Lin rolls her eyes. “Is that really all you can think about?”

“I was so convinced I was getting Toph Jr.” Toph sighs. “But it’s sweet that Twinkletoes is getting more floaters. I guess as long as the kid’s happy, I’m happy. But he’s gonna grow up so disappointed.”

“Disappointed?”

“Genetics mean he’s missed out on being taught by the greatest earthbender in history!”

Thinking back to her own earthbending training—thinking back to how she been battered, blindfolded, how she’d been buried deep underground in caves and told to ‘deal with it’ to develop her seismic sense, Lin is suddenly very grateful that Kiyo’s an airbender.

“Tragic.” She drawls, grinning.

* * *

iv

Tenzin and Baatar, the oaf that Lin has never met but has a decidedly negative opinion about, exchange letters a couple times a month. She’s questioned it a dozen times before and berated the airbender for it but he insists it’s got nothing to do with her and Su, he just _likes_ Baatar; so when he drops the casual information that Suyin’s just had her second child, or that the population of Zaofu has just had a large influx, it has _nothing_ to do with her and her sister.

Lin, realistically, can’t stop him even if she is loath to hear about her sister. She makes him promise not to throw any personal information about them into his letters, Kiyo’s existence included, and trusts him enough to believe he does so but it doesn’t stop the entire exchange from irking her.

And it’s also why she’s currently whacking Tenzin with a tea towel while Kiyo laughs hysterically from his seat by the table, after slamming the door in her sister’s face.

“Stop! Stop it, Lin, stop!” Tenzin tries to catch the tea towel; it doesn’t hurt, but she wouldn’t do it if she wasn’t _really_ annoyed about something. “What is it?”

“Why don’t you tell me!” She shouts, and suddenly all the laughter is over. “This is all _your_ fault! I told you to stop sending those letters and, there you were, telling me that it’s ‘nothing to do with Su’ even though that was obviously _total bull_ from the start! But this! Tenz, I swear on your fathe—”

Suddenly, Kiyo bursts into tears at the shouting and Lin stops, feeling rather guilty. Giving Tenzin one more look of pure rage, she goes to their son and picks him up, bouncing him up and down to try and comfort him before quickly vacating the room. The airbender is left standing alone in the kitchen, utterly bewildered, until there’s another knock at the door.

He goes to answer it, and suddenly everything makes sense.

“Hi Tenzin.” The metalbender at the door says, with a smile that seems less forced that he might have expected. “I’m assuming that my sister isn’t overly delighted at me being here.”

“You could say that.” Tenzin sighs. “Su, what are you doing here? You know she doesn’t want to see you.”

“As much as I’d like to make up with Lin, I’m not actually here for her. I’m sure you know about Junior and Huan. I want them to know their cousin.” Su explains. “Even if Lin doesn’t want to know me.”

Tenzin can feel a migraine coming along; partly because he agrees with Su, but more so because he knows that Lin absolutely will not. He also notices that Su is not here on her own, a man who is presumably Baatar is down by the bay with their two young sons waiting for whatever the response is going to be. “Look,” He says. “Lin is going to be…well, to put it bluntly, she isn’t going to be happy about any of this—no matter your intentions. I’ll take you to my parents so you can stay with them and then we can talk tomorrow about where we go from here.”

Su looks a little disappointed, though she surely must have anticipated that this wouldn’t be a smooth trip. “I understand. But…why didn’t you tell us about your son in your letters? I didn’t know he even existed a few weeks ago, when a Republic City newspaper landed in our mail.”

“Because…” He struggles to think of any reason that doesn’t completely pin it on Lin, and even though it’s true, he doesn’t want any more reason for strife to be put between the sisters. “We just decided to keep Kiyo as quiet as possible, and letters can be intercepted.”

“I can tell your lying.” She raises an eyebrow.

“Maybe I am. But it doesn’t matter, you know now.” He says.

“I suppose your right.” She bites her lip. “We did the maths; it must be his birthday pretty soon…I want to be a good aunt even if Lin wants me out of her life. I want to prove to you all that I’ve changed.”

Tenzin musters a smile, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Just you coming here shows you’ve changed a lot. But it’s going to take more than that.”

“I know.” She concedes sadly. “Do you want to meet the boys? Junior has been dying to meet his airbending uncle. He’s been bragging to all the other boys at school that he’s in the only airbending family in the world.” She chuckles, but it’s bitter.

“I’d love to meet him, but I think it’ll have to wait, Lin needs me now.” He replies. “But I’m sure spending some time with the Avatar will make up for my absence.”

He gives Su the directions to his parent’s house—makes a mental note to thank his parents for letting her stay with them, which they will no doubt do, later—and heads back inside. He doesn’t want to meet Su’s children before Lin does since, really, they’re her family more than his; so, he’ll give her another few hours to settle and calm herself, and then he’ll approach her. Yes, that’s the best course of action.

When he does return to Lin she’s laying on their bed, Kiyo down for a nap, pillow laying a carcass of ripped fabric and feathers on the floor. She looks up as he enters, looking mildly apologetic and much more tolerant of his presence. Grateful for it, even.

“I…I’m sorry.” She can’t quite look him in the eyes.

“It’s fine.” He says, sitting down next to her and pulling her into his arms. “Forget it. I’m here to see how you’re doing, I’m not angry.”

She looks up at him, finally, biting her lip. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Just…let things go?”

A small smile creeps onto his lips, and he looks into her deep questioning eyes. “For me, things tend to just blow over like…”

Lin sighs. “Like the wind. Damnit. I don’t even _want_ to go and make up with her, that’s the worst bit. She was irresponsible, I tried so hard to raise her well but she caused so many problems and I was the one who got it in the neck every time cause I’m the oldest. And now I’m still here, still working my ass off and she waltzes in with everything she’s ever wanted after ruining Mom’s career and my—” Her fingers ghost over the twin scars on her cheek, as if they still hurt, and Tenzin knows that they probably do.

“Su made a lot of mistakes, and I agree that you shouldn’t just forget that. I know you can’t just forgive her. It’s not in your nature, and it wouldn’t really be fair to you either.” He says. “But her boys haven’t done anything, and neither has Kiyo. And I think it’s important that they get to know each other even if there’s distance between us, and I think it’s important that you start to bridge that gap with Su. That doesn’t even need to be talking to her if that’s too much today. Just being around her. The first step doesn’t always have to be a big one.”

The earthbender is silent, contemplating. Deep, deep down in a place she’s not quite willing to acknowledge she loves her sister as much as she loves the rest of her family but there are so many barriers of distrust and pain that stand between Lin and that that she’s not sure she’s ever be able to get back through—or if Su will ever be able to break back through if that’s really what she wants.

And who knows what Suyin really wants? It’s always been a mystery to Lin, and still is.

“Alright.” She says after a long silence. “For Kiyo. He doesn’t really get to play with any other children, and I do worry about him getting…lonely. Maybe.”

Tenzin’s had similar thoughts; the closest person to Kiyo’s age is an acolyte’s daughter, Pema, and even she’s far too old to make a good playmate. He kisses Lin on the forehead gently, hoping that everything will run smoothly.

If there’s one thing good thing to come from Su’s visit, it’s that Kiyo absolutely adores his cousins. Having other children around is possibly the most exciting thing he’s ever experienced and the three of them get on like a house on fire—even little Huan, who Su claims is normally very hard to entertain. Junior, who’s a little older, is somewhat entranced by his little cousin; his jaw drops so far down when Kiyo sneezes and fires himself up in the air that Lin’s a little worried he might pass out.

And Tenzin slides into the role of uncle like he was born to do it. He and Baatar take them outside to play catch in the evening and Lin doesn’t think she’s ever seen Kiyo laugh so much at once from her vantage point next to Aang, sipping some jasmine tea. Suddenly he coughs, and Lin looks at him with her eyebrows furrowed.

The Avatar pats his chest as the coughs die down and gives her a half apologetic and half reassuring look. “Just a frog in my throat; nothing to worry about.”

He’s not a good liar, and Lin has been taught by the best. “You’re lying.”

“Don’t worry. I’m fine.” He waves it off. “It’s more _you_ I’m worried about.”

Lin pulls a face. “Why would you be worried about me? I’m fine.”

He gestures to the other side of the field the boys are playing on, where Su stands in conversation with Katara. “It must be rather stressful having Su back after all this time but, even so, I haven’t seen you talk to her once.”

The metalbender sighs. “Weren’t we talking about _you?_ ”

Aang chuckles and shakes his head. “You should speak to her. You don’t need to forgive her, and you don’t need to forget about what happened. But you do need to speak to her, otherwise you know you’ll regret it even if you never admit it.”

The earthbender doesn’t want to agree with him. Su is as spoiled and self-entitled as she always has been; she’s caused Lin much more pain than is evident on her face and no part of her deserves a second of Lin’s time. She doesn’t buy this ‘I’ve changed’ bullshit, if Lin’s learnt anything in all her life it’s that people _don’t_ change, for better or worse, and Suyin having gallivanted all over the earth kingdom does not make her an exception.

But this isn’t about Su, it’s about Kiyo. Her son is her priority—is always her priority and ignoring Su in this situation isn’t necessarily in his best interest. All Lin wants is for him to be safe and happy, and these cousins of his _do_ make him happy so how could she deprive him of that?

Before Lin can give it anymore thought, she’s interrupted by the vaguely familiar face of her elder nephew that she remembers is called Baatar Jr. His facial expression demonstrates more confidence than he likely feels, if him playing with his hands behind his back are any indicator but he isn’t his mother, so she softens her expression slightly and nods for him to speak.

“Uncle Tenzin said that you’re my Aunt Lin, and I haven’t spoken to you, so I wanted to speak to you. He said you’re a police officer and you my Mom’s older sister and one time you won earth rumble like Grandma Toph did but you did it even _younger.”_

His nervousness has evidently caused this word vomit, and Lin raises an eyebrow. “You know all this about me, and I don’t know a thing about you. Should I be flattered, or concerned?”

“It’s good!” He chimes, looking a little disheartened.

“I know, I know. I didn’t mean to confuse you.” She says. “But I would like to know a little more about you, so please tell me. If I’m going to be a half decent aunt then perhaps we should get to know each other rather than just you me, hmm?”

This suggestion seems to utterly thrill him because a big beam spreads onto his face and he jumps up onto Lin’s lap without warning which causes her to suck in a breath. “Now tell me, what’s it like in Zaofu?”

She looks up to meet eyes with her sister, and a smile is exchanged. Maybe there is hope for them, after all.

* * *

V

When the dreaded conversation finally arrives a couple months after Kiyo turns two, to no one’s surprise, it’s Tenzin who initiates it. It’s hardly like she hasn’t seen it coming—she’s 31 now and while she does still have time, he probably wants to get this baby thing over as soon as he can which is understandable. Ideally, he would have waited another couple of years—there’s hardly any problem with age gaps between siblings, or not in Lin’s mind anyway—but given the rapidly deteriorating health of his father the pressure from the white lotus has certainly been amplified for him. It’s eight o’clock when he sits down opposite her, both of them eating some noodles after long days of either child-rearing or work in what Lin hopes will remain amicable silence.

She is wrong.

“Look, I know you haven’t wanted to talk about it but I think it’s time we start to, at least, think about it.” She internally winces since she knows what he’s about to say before he even says it. “But we need to discuss having more children.”

He looks at her to say something, but she doesn’t, pushing her food around her bowl as she tries to think of the best way to answer that. Truth be told, before she had Kiyo, she had assumed that should the first one be an airbender then her days as a broodmare were over—but things aren’t that simple anymore. “Look, Tenz, I…” She sighs, running a hand through her hair. “I’ve given it a lot of thought ever since Kiyo was born. And I know I said before I would give you one airbender and then we were done, and I know you didn’t like that. But I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and, well, I know you’ve had it rough all this time being the only one and I don’t wish that on our son so I’m willing to try again. And…I get why you want to do it now.”

Tenzin’s face lights up but Lin holds a hand up to stop him getting too excited. “But before you get too happy about it I want you to know that this hasn’t just become a game of _how many airbenders can Lin squeeze out_ , alright? I have strict rules and limits. We have one more, and if they’re an airbender, then we stop at two. If they’re not then I will allow one more try but any more than three is a no go—do you hear me, airboy?”

Lin can’t tell whether it’s endearing or annoying that Tenzin’s eyes water up as he glides over to pull her into a hug. He stays like that, just attached to her, for a couple minutes before she finally pushes him off. “Yeah, yeah, okay that’s enough you sap.” She says but on her face she’s smiling too.

“You don’t know how much this means to me, Lin. But…if this isn’t really what you want, no matter what I think, you need to do what’s right for you.”

“I know. But it is what I want.” She whispers, looking up to him with a smile in her eyes. “I think it’d be nice for Kiyo to have a little brother.”


	2. Chapter 2

VI

“Ah, I was wondering when this would happen.” Toph grins spinning around in her chair as if she could look at her daughter. “What are you going to try and get away with this time?”

“Realistically, I don’t need to go on maternity leave until the thing literally comes out but I, for Tenzin’s sake, will settle on eight and a half months.” Lin says. Her second pregnancy has, thus far, been a lot more turbulent that her first in terms of morning sickness and general exhaustion but she’s never been one to let anything stop her from doing her job—and, now that it’s begun to clear up, she really can see no reason why it should impact her work any further. “And I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

“I don’t think that girl you call a boyfriend would agree.”

“It’s not like you ever stopped working when you were pregnant.” Lin retorts, crossing her arms. “I still remember being called out of school because ‘your new baby sister came out in the boat’. You’re lucky she didn’t get brain damage. Actually, I wouldn’t bet that she didn’t.”

“Give it a rest, Lin.” Toph sighs. “Look, go when you want, I don’t care as long as you make it very clear to twinkletoes the younger I have nothing to do with it. I am _not_ having a repeat of last time when he burst into my office raging at me like it was a slave driver or something. You’d think all that airbender crap would make him chill out a bit more.”

Lin stands and heads towards the door. “Alright. Thanks, Chief.”

“And Lin?”

The metalbender turns around, eyebrow raised. “Yes?”

“Don’t lose me this bet again. Sokka snatched 100 yuans from me because of Kiyo and I want it back.”

Lin rolls her eyes. “I’ll try my best.”

“That’s my girl.” Toph grins and leans back in her chair, putting her bare feet up on the desk. “Now go away, I need a nap.

It occurs to Lin not for the first time that her mother spends more time living in her office than her actual house, and with the acknowledgement that Toph probably hasn’t been home in a few days, she leaves the woman to nap in peace.

Telling the rest of the family that their expecting when Lin hits four months along goes just as obnoxiously well, if not more so, that the first time. Katara is so excited that she throws a big party for them on the island, all the acolytes come and if it wasn’t for Lin’s last-minute intervention half of Republic city would have turned up. Toph, as expected, sits in the corner with a bottle of sake with Sokka making jokes about all the people present and Lin sees this as her opportunity to evade the onslaught of groping hands that all aim for her stomach.

“…And so I told him that he could take his 300 yuan spirit necklace and shove it up his ass.” Toph says to Sokka, who snorts and shakes his head.

“That did _not_ happen.”

“No, it didn’t.” Toph sighs and takes another swig of her drink. “But it would be brilliant if it did. Imagine, fuck, nothing interesting’s really happened lately so I really need a kind of mass robbery with a charming rejected romance on the side. That’s the kind of thing that really gets me going, you know?”

She can’t see it, but Sokka rolls his eyes despite the smile on his face.

Lin creases her nose at the thought as she sits down. “Please stop talking about whatever that is.”

“Ah, it’s the star of the show.” Sokka smiles at her. “How you feeling, Linny?”

“I can’t quite tell if it’s the baby or this crowd of idiots that’s making me nauseous, so great.” She deadpans. “I don’t know why Katara has to do this to me. It’s almost like she’s out to evict me from the island and, let me tell you, it’s starting to work.”

Toph snorts, and Sokka shakes his head. “She’s just excited. She’s hardly getting any grandchildren from Bumi or Kya anytime soon and you know how much she loves kids.”

Lin sighs and nods, staring longingly as her mother’s drink. She would never consume anything that might hurt the baby but that doesn’t mean she can’t fantasize about getting absolutely wasted and waking up tomorrow without a single memory of the entire ordeal. “Where’s the little tyke?” Toph asks.

“He’s asleep right now. One of the acolytes volunteering to stay with him…Penta, or Pema or something.” She says. “I might sneak out to go and check on him. You wanna come?”

Toph snorts again. “As if you have to ask. Coming, snoozles?”

“I would but I promised Aang I’d talk to him at some point tonight and I’d better do it now before I forget.” Sokka says and looks towards Toph with a smirk. “I’ll see you later?”

The scoff Toph lets out doesn’t quite match the smile on her face. “If you’re lucky. Now go away, we need to go and see my grandson.”

Lin is vaguely aware of the on and off relationship that’s stood between Sokka and her mother since…well, as long as she can remember, but has absolutely no desire to know any more about it that she already does. Sokka’s the closest thing she has to a father, and even though logically she should put him in the position of ‘the person seeing her mother’ in her head the entire thought makes her feel icky. So, she promptly forgets that display and walks on with her mother out of Katara’s house and towards her own where Kiyo is sleeping.

They walk in silence for a while, before her mother characteristically breaks it. “Not to kill the mood but you’re fatter than last time.”

Lin sighs. “Thanks. It means a lot.”

“I only say that cause I was exactly the same when I had Su. You might not remember, but I swear I was heavier than this island—I mean, I could waddle around but it was a pain in the ass. You’re probably gonna end up the same so maybe hit the gym a little more, yeah?”

“Oh, I remember. I also remember you making me scratch your back with that tiny rake Sokka bought ‘cause you couldn’t reach anything.”

Toph snorts. “I forgot about that. Ah, well. Have you told Kiyo he’s going to be a brother yet? I speak from experience when I say you’ve gotta do that carefully otherwise it can end badly. The tantrums, I swear it’s horri—”

“Yes, yes, I get it—I was a problem child.” Lin rolls her eyes. “And yes, we have, and he’s excited. He wants a little sister, which I think is probably unlikely, but I guess anything could happen.”

The chief of police groans. “For the record, you were both problems kids, and what do you mean ‘unlikely’? I thought you said you were gonna try and help me out with this whole bet thing?”

“I can’t help my intuition, mother.”

Toph mutters something probably rude but Lin doesn’t make any effort to listen to her, pushing the door of her house open. The house itself is actually quite nice—a gift from Aang and Katara when Lin first got pregnant with Kiyo, and while she does still miss her city apartment somewhat given the fact it was a minute from the station she is prepared to admit it’s nicer to have the room—and, if nothing else, it’s more motivation to actually go home and not just sleep in the office.

She makes a beeline to her son’s nursery, which, she supposes, won’t be a nursery for too much longer. They’ll recycle the crib once the new baby comes which means Kiyo will get his own bed. It’s good that he’ll get that, but Lin can’t help feeling a little tug at her heart at the thought of her first child outgrowing a crib—it’s like yesterday he was still just learning how to sit up, he was a little thing that weighed less that some of his toys.

As it turns out he’s awake, out of his crib and playing with a wooden train on the floor. “Mama!” He cries as soon as she walks in, train forgotten and arms out to be picked up, his little cheeks warm in excitement.

“Hey kid.” Lin smiles and obliges, swinging him onto her hip. “It’s late, you shouldn’t be up. Where’s your babysitter, huh?”

“I playing train.” He says and grabs a strand of her hair, playing with it.

“Mhmm.” Lin looks over at her mother. “Did you see that girl?”

Toph closes her eyes and presses her foot into the floor, sensing around. “She’s in Twinkle Toes Jr’s study, apparently didn’t hear us come in.” She can feel Lin’s annoyance at this and chuckles. “By all means go and chew her out but pass me my little boy before you do, I want a snuggle.”

While being passed over Kiyo exclaims “I was playing train!” again, which prompts another chuckle.

“I heard. You wanna let me have a feel of your trains?”

He nods excitedly as his mother stalks after his babysitter, floating out of his grandmother’s arms and over to the floor where she can see him properly. “This one’s my fav-o-rite.” He tells her picking up the biggest one. “’Cause it’s green and big.”

“How about this one?” Toph gestures to a skinnier one. “Bet it’s faster than the green one.”

Kiyo chuckles and shakes his head. “But they’re both green!”

Toph half-heartedly joins in. “Yeah, sorry. But you remember that Grandma can’t see colours like you do?”

“Uh-huh.” He’s only two years old, so can’t quite understand the concept of blindness just yet but even so, after all these years, the reminder still stings a bit. This happened with Lin and Suyin too when they were little, and it hurt even more back then because it wasn’t their fault they didn’t understand. But more than that Toph is just happy that no one has inherited her blindness thus far, and for all its ultimately brought her, hopes that none in future will.

Lin catches the acolyte red handing looking at a photo frame in Tenzin’s office. She clears her throat, scowl on her face.

“Oh!” The acolyte’s head shoots up. “Ms Beifong! I’m so sorry, I was just…”

“Please, do tell me what on earth you think you’re doing.” Lin utters coldly. “Because last I heard you were supposed to put my kid to bed at 7 and then watch him until we got back—not go through my husband’s office while Kiyo is still very awake playing with his trains at…” she glances at a clock on the wall. “9:30.”

The girl blanches. “He—He’s awake? He must have climbed out of his crib; I swear I put him to bed when Master Tenzin said—”

“But evidently you haven’t checked on him since which is quite concerning given that Master Tenzin was trusting you with my son.” She steps forward. “It’s Pema, isn’t it?”

The girl gulps. “Uh, yes. Yes.”

“What are you doing in here that’s so much more important that watching him?”

The metalbender glances down to the frame, it’s a picture of herself from years ago—back when she’s first started growing her hair out and she’d just graduated from the metal-bending academy. She’s laughing, not looking at the camera, reclined on a sofa from her old apartment. Tenzin took the picture, she remembers, and has been awfully fond of it ever since, not that Lin understands why.

“I—” Pema follows her eyeline and stands up a little taller. “I was just curious. I’ll get back now.”

Lin blocks the doorway. “Curious about _what?”_

Boldly, the acolyte says “Why Master Tenzin fell in love with you over anyone else. What makes you...special. Now if you’re back for the evening, Ms Beifong, I’m sure you won’t mind me heading back to the dormitories. It’s an early meditation in the morning, after all.”

Considering the fact that Lin’s normally always in complete control of the room, she has to give the girl a little credit for startling her for a moment. She had expected stuttered apologies and an attempt to make it up to her, or some nonsense like that, but it seems the babysitter has more backbone that she’s been given credit for.

And as much as Lin might respect that, it’s hardly a good quality for an air acolyte so she’s not giving it any more recognition than that.

“Get out.” She commands, leaning out of the doorframe. “You can be assured that any duties you’ve had previously with my son are now completely suspended. Tenzin doesn’t have time for this sort of garbage and neither do I, so get lost.”

As told, the girl drops the frame back onto the desk and speedily exits the house before Lin can change her mind. Spirits, had this been five years ago Lin probably would have whipped her ass for going through Tenzin’s stuff but perhaps motherhood has made her soft. Or maybe it’s that Tenzin seems quite fond of that one in particular, and he’ll be upset enough that Lin’s never going to let her within ten metres of Kiyo again –having chewed her out might have rubbed it in a little more.

With a sigh, the metalbender picks the frame up and puts it back where it came from, the left corner of his desk next to the full family portrait (which Lin vaguely remembers was tedious to sit through) and a more recent shot of her, him and Kiyo playing in the mud.

_What makes you…special?_

The acolyte’s words resonate with her. Of course, Lin can answer that question quite easily—she and Tenzin grew up together, know everything about each other to a point which is probably bordering bizarre, she can hardly imagine ever spending time so exclusively with anyone else. Would it be different, she wonders, staring the younger version of herself down, had they met later in life? Would a young, studious Lin Beifong have caught the eye of the grand Air Nomad Tenzin? Part of her doubts it, which hurts a little in a place she’s not going to acknowledge, but practically she knows there’s no use dwelling on what could have been when all it’ll do it make her question what’s already so good in her life.

Lin turns away from the photo with a sigh and banishes Pema from her mind, heading back to spend time with her son and mother.

VII

It’s three weeks before Lin gives birth to her second child that Aang passes away in his sleep.

His health had been looking rough for a while, but ever the cheery spirit the airbender would never admit any pain or discomfort to anyone. Tenzin is distraught, consumed in his meditation as a way to channel his grief which doesn’t quite seem healthy but Lin’s hardly one to lecture her boyfriend about healthy coping mechanisms—if that’s what he needs to get him through, then she’ll leave him to it and offer a hug and shoulder to cry on when needed.

She, too, grieves for Aang—but inwardly, and truth be told she’s putting all her energy into trying to calm Kiyo down who can’t quite understand what’s going on but is distressed by the depression that’s swept across the island. He spends his nights curled up with Lin in her bed (something she would normally dissuade, and is difficult given her sheer circumference, but she will allow for now since it’s as much a lifeline for him as it is her).

The baby does somersaults in her stomach as she boils some rice, Kiyo sucking his thumb as he toddles about around her legs. Kya and Bumi are back for a few days, the funeral was yesterday morning, to be with the family. Suyin’s come over too, not with the kids this time, even if out of all of them she knew Aang the least—Lin is grateful, a little, for this.

Said sister is chopping carrots behind her quietly. The relationship is still very much strained but if nothing else mourning the Avatar gives them a reprieve from all the fighting and bitterness—it’s quite hard to find the energy to fight when everything around them seems to be cloaked with the lethargy of sadness.

“Is three enough?” Suyin asks her.

Lin nods. “Uh, yeah.”

Kiyo pulls his thumb out of his mouth with a distinct pop. “Mama, I’m hungry. Can I have snack?”

“No. We’re about to have lunch, can’t you see that?” It comes out a little brusquer that she intends, and after a moment of silence Kiyo bursts into tears. And in a way that makes her hate her sister but hate herself even more, it’s _Su_ that goes to pick her son up and comfort him instead of her who stands, frozen and unmoving by the stove.

What’s even worse it that when her sister takes the weeping child out of the room Lin feels nothing but relief. Relief! What kind of mother feels better once their son is taken away from them—what kind of mother can’t even comfort her toddler when she herself has made him cry? It makes her feel sick, but she still makes no effort to move towards him or her sister, remains in the kitchen still.

The baby has stopped moving, as if sensing something’s not quite right with its mother. Once again Lin finds herself guiltily appreciative.

It takes her about half an hour to pull herself together, willing herself not to lose it because this isn’t the time to unleash the dramatics, damnit—Tenzin is the one in pain right now, and she needs to be strong for him and strong for their son. With a deep breath, she takes the rice off the heat and runs a shaking hand through her hair, forcing herself towards the living room where she can hear Su’s voice.

“Like a daffodil?”

“Yep, just like that.” She hears Su agree through the door. “So, while your grandpa can’t see you anymore, his spirit is travelling onto another person who’ll be an avatar like him, and he’ll live on through them. Like when you blow a daffodil, and all the seeds float away and then the next summer you get a new daffodil from them.”

“Could he be in my baby brother or sister then?” Kiyo asks, tone so innocent that irrationally makes Lin want to cry.

“Probably not, it’ll be someone from the water tribe, but I’ll explain that to you another time.” Su tells him. “But even if he’s not here anymore, you know that he’ll always be in your heart, and your parent’s hearts because he loved you all very, very much.”

“Even mine?”

“Especially yours.” Su smiles.

Once Kiyo’s been in bed for a few hours and Lin’s finished all the work she can still do somewhat comfortably, Lin approaches her sister who’s sitting on the terrace behind the house. Tenzin will be over at his mother’s for another hour or so—he’ll say it’s because Katara needs to be around them, which is likely true, but equally he needs to be around his last remaining parent right now which Lin respects.

She sits next to her sister, hand resting on the small back as she does so and lets out a breath once she gets comfortable. For once the silence between them doesn’t feel awkward.

“Thank you.” Lin mutters after a minute, looking up at the stars.

Su turns to look at her. “For what?”

“For taking him, earlier. When I was…” She sighs and shakes her head. “You know. Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Lin.” Su replies. “I know it’s difficult with you and me but…I was serious when I said I wanted to know my nephew and would still like to patch things up with us.”

Lin looks over at her. “Well, Kiyo loves you, so you’re making progress.”

Su’s smile is a little sad, but a smile all the same. “I know you’re stronger than platinum, but you are allowed to take some time for yourself too, you know? Aang was your family too. If you need to take some time, then I’ll always watch Kiyo for you.”

Lin pauses for a long moment, and then, confidently, for the first time finds herself saying: “I know.”

VIII

Given the fact that babies don’t do much beyond eating, sleeping and shitting Lin and Tenzin are both genuinely shocked at the stark difference between how Kiyo was compared with his younger sibling.

The new baby screams. Kiyo cried too, as do all babies, but there seems to be a difference between his crying and this new noise which can be described only as shrieking at what seems like all hours of the day and night. If Lin had thought Kiyo had been fussy at times, he’s nothing compared to this new ball of rage that has come with her second child.

It’s seems the only person enjoying this new baby completely is Toph, who is delighted at winning some money back with the arrival of her granddaughter. She was born during a storm which is rather poetically fitting given the utter destruction she’s delivered to her parent’s house and sanity—the only person with something resembling a sleep schedule anymore is Kiyo who is, fortunately, a very heavy sleeper.

Laying half asleep on her bed Lin buries her face in her pillow with a moan as the girl’s screams recommence after what she’d hoped would be a few hours of peace. Tenzin is shushing her somewhat unsuccessfully.

“Gag her!” Lin moans from her position, clamping her hands over her ears. “This is all your fault, damnit, I can’t believe I let you talk me into this!”

“Come on little one, shhhh sweetheart…” Tenzin whisper as he rocks the baby side to side. “Go to sleep now, you can do it…”

If it weren’t for Katara who comes over early every morning to help them out, Lin thinks she might have walked out by now. She loves her child, of course she does, but she doesn’t _like_ her very much at the moment.

Lin snatches the baby out of Tenzin’s arms after about twenty minutes of unsuccessful cooing, sleep deprived and raging. “Loha Beifong, you will be quiet, or I swear to the spirits that I’m putting you up for adoption!”

When the noise suddenly subsides, Lin thinks she might be going entirely mad but, no, it seems that the tough love is exactly what her daughter—now sleeping—needed. Spirits, that certainly not normal is it? It probably something worth thinking about in more detail but at present Lin has neither the energy nor patience to contemplate anything.

She lays the baby down in the crib, and the falls back on her bed—her and Tenzin sleep for the longest time since she was born.

“There’s a good girl!” Katara beams as the baby burps after Lin just fed her, said metalbender half asleep on the sofa, less than a centimetre away from a nip slip and not bothered enough to do anything about it. Kiyo climbs up next to and pulls her top up for her, snuggling into her side.

“Will you play pirates with me, Mommy?” He whispers, as he is so used to doing around his new sibling. All things considered, he’s taken the shift in attention very well and for that Lin’s proud of him—she knows she should be taking these moments she has free to play with him but truthfully she’s _exhausted_ and very selfishly at present would rather spend a little time with her pillow.

But she loves Kiyo far more than herself, so she drags herself into a sitting position. “Let me get some coffee and then I’m all yours kid, I promise.” She says. The little airbender giggles and jumps off the couch, going over to his grandmother while Lin sorts herself out. He looks up at Katara with wide dark grey eyes. “Can I hold her, Gran Gran? Until Mommy gets back.”

The waterbender smiles. “Of course—now sit down and hold out your arms like I showed you—like that, good boy.”

The baby wriggles around and makes a noise of protest at the movement but soon settles somewhat into her brother’s arms. Given that they’re siblings they don’t look an awful lot alike, or at least so far—Loha’s skin is a few shades darker than his, resembling her waterbending grandmother, but her hair is lighter than his trademark black and her eyes are the same jade as most of her Beifong ancestors. For that reason, Toph remains adamant that she’s getting the earthbending granddaughter she was deprived of the first time around though quietly Lin hopes not since she doesn’t want to go through this again and end up with another monster of a baby.

(Okay—maybe she’s being a little harsh. As far as babies go, she’s only ever really been around two of them so it could be possible that Kiyo was just miraculously calm and Loha is standard but from Katara’s expression of shock the first night she was around her the suggestion would be otherwise. And it’s not like Lin would ever trade her for anyone else, screams and all she is still Lin’s daughter, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t appreciate more than ten minutes of consecutive sleep every now and then.”

“Was I this little?” Kiyo asks, looking up at his grandmother.

“That you were.” Katara smiles. “But one day she’ll be as big as you, and you’ll be able to play pirates together—won’t that be exciting?”

He nods and smiles. “Can you speed it up?”

“I’m afraid not, little one.” She smiles and kisses his forehead. “You’ve just got to be patient.”

“That’s okay. I like playing with just Mommy anyway. I like that she doesn’t have to go to work anymore.”

“She will eventually, but I know.” Katara says. Lin comes back mug in hand feeling a little better and smiles at her two children sitting on the couch together, Loha for once quite content just to lay there peacefully. It was definitely the right call to have the second child, she thinks with a smile, and despite the chaos she’s sure it’ll bring she’s excited to see the little one grow up.

ix

Lin’s never had to bring the kids into the office before, but when Tenzin drops them off in her office declaring that he needs to go and help Sokka with something or another and no one else was available to babysit she isn’t really given the chance to protest. Tonight she’ll give him a royal dressing down for it but in true airbender fashion he slips out of the building before she can express any real opinion on the matter, so she’s left with a four year old pulling the files on her desk onto the floor and a hungry six month old crying on her lap.

It takes her a moment to regain any sort of sense of reality, which she then does and pulls a bottle out of the bag Tenzin dropped off with the children and offers it to the baby who, thankfully, takes it without complaint.

“Kiyo, please stop touching the files—they’re important work stuff.” She says, her twitching a little as he haphazardly pulls papers out.

“Okay.” The little boy put the paper down and finds the cord for her lamp on the floor with a switch, turning it on. He then switches if off, and then on again. “Look, Mommy!” He cries, and then giggles and it turns off and on and off again.

Lin can feel an avalanche of a headache creeping up on her. “Please, stop!…just sit still for a minute while I jus-just sort out—” She takes a deep breath and curses Tenzin for springing this on her when she has actual stuff to do. At the sound of a knock at her door she thinks she might implode.

“Come in!” Kiyo says before she has the chance to tell the person to go away, and a confused looking Saikhan opens the door. Lin feels her cheeks heating up as she tries to avoid eye contact—just the thought of the officers seeing has as a mother makes her distinctly uncomfortable in a way Tenzin would never be able to understand.

To them she is the hardass boss who has a practically flawless both in court and in the field—she has the highest arrest count to date and does not suffer fools, her interrogations are feared and almost always successful and her employees, love her or hate her, all hold a deep respect for her. It probably shouldn’t, but the image of her holding her daughter against her chest to feed her undermines this, in her mind at least, and she, perhaps irrationally, feels absolutely mortified. She _shouldn’t_ but her children represent the other half of her life that she’s tried to keep separate from her work—both are a reprieve from each other, and that’s how she likes it.

The domesticity of her home life and innocence of her young children almost makes her feel…weak? Maybe that’s not the right way of putting it, but highlights a part of her that is a woman and a mother over an officer of the law, and exposing her staff who all respect her immensely scares her. Not because being a woman undermines her at all in front of her men—every Chief of police in republic city has been a woman, after all—but a mother is an entirely different playing field.

At least when they were little, Lin and Suyin wouldn’t have been caught within a twenty mile radius of the precinct because Toph, like Lin, didn’t like to mix the two aspects of her life. Or, perhaps, it was more that she didn’t want two accident pregnancies to get in the way of her career and but any mark on her own reputation—Lin believes this most likely. Her children aren’t like that, and she’s certainly isn’t prepared to leave them essentially alone when there are no other options like her mother did, but that doesn’t mean her views about mixing her children with her colleagues are very different.

Saikhan stares at her for a moment and then clears her throat. “I—uh—I was just gonna let you know that the hitman you caught this morning is ready for interrogation—he’s important for the Shu case and you said you wanted to do it yourself.”

Loha makes an unhappy noise and bats away the bottle, clearly indicating she done, and in a manner that feels painstakingly awkward Lin turns her so the baby’s head is just above her shoulder and starts to pat her back. “Do you think it’d be allowed if I hire him to take out Tenzin before we interrogate?” She jokes half-heartedly.

Saikhan grins. “I’d think not, but I’m sure you could make inquiries.”

“Are you a policeman like my mommy?” Kiyo asks, looking up at the man with his big grey eyes.

He seems a little taken aback but quickly nods. “Yeah, but your mom’s my boss. She’s in charge of everyone in this building.”

“That’s so cool! Does she get to tell you what to do all the time like she does with me?”

“Ki, let’s leave the interrogating to me, yeah?” Lin stands up, holding Loha against her with one hand and massaging her temple with the other. She looks to Saikhan. “I’ll go deal with it just…could you take them, just for a minute? I’ll be as quick as I can.”

He looks surprised but then nods. “I…sure. I don’t really know anything about babies…”

“I just fed her, so she should be fine on that front, and if she starts crying then check her diaper and…oh, everything’s in that bag over there, you’ll figure it out. Use your detective’s initiative.” She passes Loha over to Saikhan who initially holds her out in front of him like she’s some sort of dangerous material, but slowly figures out how to do it properly. Lin quickly thanks him and promises Kiyo she’ll be back soon before leaving the office to head down to the correct floor for interrogation.

Kiyo looks up at his new babysitter. “How many bad guys have you caught?”

“Uh…I don’t know, I’ve been working here a while.”

“Is it more than my Mom?”

He thinks about for a moment and then nods. “Yeah. Way more than your Mom. Do you like red bean cakes?”

Kiyo nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! Daddy always makes them for my birthday.”

“I think Manchu still has some on his desk, c’mon.” The young airbender happily follows the man over to the other detective’s desk and finds that he quite likes visiting his mommy at work and hopes he can do it again soon if nice strangers give him cakes.

Lin stops dead in the corridor when she hears the amount of noise coming from the block of detective’s desks that are outside her office. Part of her is initially worried that there’s been some sort of attack but that’s quickly pushed away when she realises that they’re all cheering at something.

She steps into the room and is very surprised at what she sees.

All the desks have been moved to the middle of the room to form a sort of racetrack that goes around them and there are two wheeled chairs that seem to be racing each other around the room—on one of them sits one her younger metalbenders, Manchu, who has Kiyo on his lap. The child in question is laughing very hard as he chants for Manchu to go faster, while the other chair has the only other female officer in the precinct at the moment—Biyu—who has Loha on her lap, the girl is smiling and clapping her hands excitedly more than Lin’s ever seen her do.

Kiyo tilts his head over the armrest and blows, his airbending propelling the chair ahead of the other around a corner and causing half the room to burst into cheers. Biyu grabs the side of the table and twists around, almost catching up but just missing the mark as Kiyo and Manchu fly over what appears to be the finish line.

“WhooooOOOoooo!” She hears Manchu cry, lifting Kiyo up in the air excitedly.

“We won, we won!” Kiyo cries and then sticks his tongue out as the competition—Biyu’s pouting little but Loha is entirely unbothered (or, more likely, unaware) and just claps along with everyone else. The little boy wraps his arms around Manchu’s neck.

“You’re the real star of the show, Kiyo—couldn’t have done it without your airbending.” Manchu grins at him.

“Which was _technically_ cheating.” Biyu adds, putting Loha onto her hip as she stands.

“You’re just jealous that we’re the superior team.” Manchu replies, raising an eyebrow and giving Kiyo a high five.

“Can I have another bean cake since we won?”

“Sure you ca—”

Lin clears her throat from where she was standing and crosses her arms, glancing over at the room of overexcited detectives. “I see you’ve all been _very_ hard at work since I’ve been gone.”

Silence runs over the room, Manchu looks like he might faint, but Kiyo doesn’t seem to pick up on it. “Mama, me and Manchu won!” He looks at the detective who’s turned a little white. “Can we go again?”

“I think that everyone should probably get back to work…” Lin says, but at the disheartened look on her detectives faces decides that, perhaps this once, she’ll let them have a little fun. They’re all hardworking overall, and it’s not like she’s going to let Tenzin drop the kids off at the office anytime soon so…well, a few more minutes of procrastination shouldn’t hurt too much. “But I suppose one more race wouldn’t hurt.”

“Really, Chief?” Manchu asks.

She nods. “Don’t wait too long or I’ll change my mind. No bending this time though, Kiyo—give poor Biyu a chance.”

The second race is chipped my Biyu and Loha, and results in a penultimate round where Kiyo tries to disguise an airbending boost as a sneeze that Lin decides to overlook since her son will enjoy a victory far more than his six-month-old sister. It’s late enough at this point that she elects to take off early to get the kids home for dinner, Tenzin shouldn’t be too long, and truth be told the interrogation was exhausting even if she was successful. She is surprised but not unhappy at how quickly and excitedly her detectives take to the children, and there doesn’t seem to be any of the response she feared they might have—the opposite, in fact. Kiyo is upset when she tells him they have to go and Loha starts to have a bit of a screaming fit which Lin tries, unsuccessfully, to calm with her pacifier.

She’s basically through the front door of the precinct when she realises she’s left some files that she wants to look over before tomorrow on her desk. “Shit!” She mutters under her breath, Loha still whimpering in her arms as she reaches back towards the stairs up to her office.

“Something wrong, Chief?” Huang, a beat cop walking past, asks.

“Nothing I…I just left some files upstairs and I—never mind, I’ll just…” She sighs, shifting Loha to her hip.

“I can get them for you, Chief!” He chimes. “Just tell me where they and I’ll be back before you know it.”

She opens her mouth to tell him no but realises that if she wants to look over the files and not go through the torture of letting Loha see the detectives again only to promptly leave then getting Huang to get them for her the best option. So instead she nods. “They’re on the right corner of my desk, they’ll be labelled ‘Shu’. Do _not_ by any means look inside or touch anything else in my office.”

Huang nods. “You got it, Chief.” He sprints up the stairs and Loha moans as she watches him go.

Lin sighs and goes to lean against the wall, taking Kiyo’s hand and leading him to stand with her. Having a whingy kid in public is exhausting in general, and she’ll be so relieved once they’re back on air temple island and Loha can get some much needed sleep—and she can give Tenzin a much needed chewing out for dumping the kids on her without warning, even if it turned out to be not so bad.

Through the wall she can hear Biyu and another officer talking, they must have come down the back stairs at some point to get some training. She’s not listening, exactly, but she’s not about to move now that the baby’s begun to settle so pays absent attention.

“—I just think it’s mad, you know? I thought she was incredible already; I mean she’s the Chief of police and literally the reason I joined the metalbending academy to begin with, but I guess I never really realised she has kids to?”

The person she’s with, who Lin determines quickly is another metalbender named Cheng, replies quickly. “You didn’t know she has kids? You were here during her maternity leave, right?”

“I _know_ but I guess it never really sunk in. I’ve got two brothers who are way younger than me so I know how much work it is, and that on top of being Chief…that’s so inspirational! I hope I’ll turn out like Chief Beifong in the future.”

Lin isn’t generally someone who is particularly moved or bothered by praise and flattery but there’s something about Biyu’s comment that makes her smile and hold Loha tighter against her. If the impression on the young police officers she’s giving is that with hard work you can have everything that you want in life then she’s glad, and maybe she is going some good for this city after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone has any ideas for things that the linzin could get up to in the future I'd love to hear them! I'll try and incorporate them into my rough outline if I can <3


	3. Chapter 3

X

Toph isn’t exactly sure why she agreed to take care of Lin’s kids for the weekend while she and Tenzin take a brief trip to the northern air temple to help sort out a residency issue—mostly because she’s never consented to this sort of thing for more than an afternoon at a time before—but with Katara returning to the South Pole and her own knowledge that it won’t be long before she leaves Republic City for good, she decides to fuck it all and head to airbender island with Sokka (who she’s managed to rope into it with her) for the weekend.

Her granddaughter, who has just turned one, toddles up to her upon arrival which wouldn’t be alarming if not for the lack of parents. Toph picks her up and raises an eyebrow. “Do you think those two clowns are aware their offspring has gone walkabout?”

“They’ll probably realise in about ten seconds.” Sokka holds a finger up and starts to count down and, perfectly on cue, Tenzin bursts through the door looking like he’s about to explode with worry.

“Now to worry, Arrowhead—I’ve got her!” Toph calls, and the little girl giggles.

“Thank you, I don’t—Lin is going to _kill me_ —she was in her highchair— _how did you get out?_ —that can’t be possible.” He jogs up to his uncle and aunt looks relieved.

“What can I say, she’s resourceful like her Uncle Sokka.” Sokka bends down to give the top of her head a kiss, to which she bats at his face and starts to wriggle out of Toph’s grasp. With the door open, Kiyo is not long to follow the crowd.

“Grandma! Uncle Sokka!” He cries and runs over to them, to which Toph makes a noise of displeasure.

“I still think too young to be a grandma. Why can’t he just call me ‘Toph’ instead—or better yet, Chief.” She grumbles.

Sokka laughs. “Stop being such a baby. You’re lucky to have grandkids at all.”

“They’re just as much yours as they are mine, I don’t know why they don’t call you Grandpa.” Toph snorts and then looks to her grandson. “Hey, Ki. You excited to spend the whole weekend with me and Uncle Sokka?”

He nods very enthusiastically. “Yeah! Will you take me to work with you again?”

Tenzin shoots her a look and Toph redirects it to her grandson. “Do you remember what we spoke about—how we _were at home the entire time?_ ”

Kiyo looks embarrassed. “Oh, yeah. We were at home.”

“You took him to work?” Tenzin’s turned bright tomato red, but Toph just shrugs.

“Nope. We were at home the whole time.”

“We were at home the whole time.” Kiyo repeats, before running to Sokka to give him a big hug.

“That is so irresponsible…Spirits, I would rethink this whole weekend if Sokka weren’t here and we weren’t so pressed for time. If Lin found out, she would flip.”

“I agree, taking Kiyo to work with me would be totally irresponsible. That’s why we were at home the entire time.” Toph repeats, setting a now very wriggly Loha down on the floor. “Now, take me to my daughter where she will lay down a very complicated list of ground rules that I will undoubtedly ignore.”

Tenzin sighs. “We haven’t even left and I’m already regretting this.”

They walk around to the bison stables where Lin is loading their limited bags into Oogi’s saddle, and raises an eyebrow at the toddler who’s valiantly trying to run over to her but bordering tripping under the careful watch of her father. She looks up at her mother. “Is everything still good for this weekend?”

“Peachy.” Toph says. “You go enjoy your travels while I stay here and take up your responsibilities.”

Lin scowls. “It’s not a holiday. It’s a routine check.”

“Whatever you say.” Toph waves her hand in dismissal.

“Do have fun though, and try not to worry about us, we have everything under control here.” Sokka says which is only marginally more comforting. Lin tries not to think about it, handing him a careful list detailing the rules for bedtimes, what the children are and aren’t allowed to do, allergies etc. “We’ve got kale for dinner and an early bedtime planned.”

Kiyo sticks his tongue out. “That’s yucky.”

Toph winks at him. “Just wait until your parents leave, we’ve just gotta tell them this stuff.”

Tenzin shoots her an unimpressed look. “We’re still here.”

“Sweet Spirits, won’t you just leave already? I’m the one doing the babysitting here, not you, so get your ass off the air temple before I shoot you there myself.”

“What she means is,” Sokka adds. “Is we hope you have a good time.”

“Don’t tell me what I mean!”

“Do you want them to go or not?”

Kiyo runs up to his mother and jumps up to give her a hug which she gives back, holding him close. Lin’s been away from the kids for the odd day or so before but that doesn’t make it any harder to leave them when she does have to, though it seems Loha is either unbothered or oblivious to the fact that her parents are going away for a couple of days because she’s more interested in a rogue flower she’s seen on the floor that her parents.

“Try and get your grandparents to behave.” Lin whispers to Kiyo who giggles.

“I will. I’ll miss you, Mama.”

She smiles and gives him a quick kiss on the forehead. “I’ll miss you to, but I’ll be back before you know it. Go and say goodbye to your father.” She lets him go and retrieves the youngest child who makes a noise of complaint about being picked up again.

“I’m going away with your Dad for a couple days, but I’ll be back soon. Not that you’ll miss me.” She snorts as Loha ignores what she’s saying and reaches for a loose strand of her hair to tug. It seems all toddlers have a fascination with yanking her hair—not something Lin will miss once they get older at all.

“Mama!” Loha exclaims, and tries to jump onto the ground, though is apprehended by her father who also wants to say his goodbyes.

Lin and Tenzin leave about ten minutes after, Kiyo feeling a little tearful at his parent’s departure but quite quickly distracted by Sokka, Loha remaining still oblivious that anything’s happening and more interested in going back to the house so she can play with her dolls. Almost ironically, the girl reminds Toph of Su at that age far more than Lin who had rejected dolls for blocks and dirt from day one, though she supposes—unlike how she had felt about her own children—there’s no guarantee that her granddaughter is going to be the figurative heir to her female Beifong metalbending line. She’s hoping for it, of course, and still want to win her money back—but her temperament isn’t really getting her hopes up.

“Who wants to go out for dinner instead of eating the trash vegetarian food they have here?” Toph asks, and Kiyo makes a noise of excitement.

“Really? Daddy and Mommy never let me go out to eat.” He grins excitedly.

Toph raises an eyebrow. “Well, we’ll have to keep it between us then, eh? I’m sure they won’t mind too much.”

Part of her had expected Sokka to put up some sort of resistance to her suggestion but he seems just as excited as Kiyo. “Can we go to that new water tribe place near your office? I haven’t had sea prunes in _forever_ and a man needs his food.”

Toph pulls a face. “I was hoping for something a bit less—as Kiyo so eloquently said earlier— _yucky._ ”

“They are a quarter southern water tribe, Toph, and Tenzin never did spend enough time learning and teaching them about that part of their heritage. It’s important for me to share with them their roots where I can, and while I’m still around…” He feigns a pained expression and puts a hand over his heart. “And _a man needs his food._ ”

“Don’t pull this sentimental shit with me, I know your game.”

“ _Language_ around the children! They do those noodles you like, with the chili flakes, too.”

Toph looks contemplative for a moment and then turns to Kiyo. “Guess what kid, we’re going to eat water tribe food!”

Taking little children out to restaurants is historically a disaster waiting to happen, but Sokka and Toph don’t enter the battlefield unprepared. They go early enough that Loha won’t be tired for the next few hours so hopefully won’t kick up too much of a fuss, and Sokka packs two of her dolls to keep her occupied to make sure she won’t get bored. Kiyo tends to be pretty calm most of the time, and rarely kicks up a fuss but when it comes to exposing themselves to the public they aren’t taking any chances, so bring along some of his toys.

Toph suggests taking some milk spiked with a tiny bit of liqueur because that always worked with Su and Lin to calm them down (something Katara used to scream at her for doing once she found out but hey, it worked, and she never gave them much) but Sokka shares his sister’s view that that is highly irresponsible. While he doesn’t mind breaking Tenzin and Lin’s rules a little bit in the name of fun, he’s not about to borderline break the law alongside it.

(It’s actually a grey area, Toph would know, but it’s hardly the time to bring that up.)

They find a table in the corner where hopefully they won’t get recognised, Kiyo’s in a pair of brown pants and a green kids tunic that’s kept at the back of his wardrobe since his usual airbender attire would be a bit of a giveaway. It makes Toph realise how much times have changed since she was a kid—and how impossible it would have been for Aang to go around the world without being caught with cameras and newspapers like there are today given his tattoos. The next Avatar hasn’t been identified yet—it’s too soon for that, they’re probably Loha’s age—but Toph already feels for the next Avatar and the undeniable publicity problems that’ll come with the position.

“I can have anything?” Kiyo’s practically jumping up on his seat as he clutches the menu that he can’t yet read. “Anything on the list?”

Sokka nods. “That’s right, but I think you’ll like the clamfish noodles or the fried dolphin piranha.”

Toph has Loha on her lap (not that the girl, as ever, particularly wants to be) and has fortunately distracted her with a pacifier for now. “Order some bread for little runaway here, and you know what I like.”

Sokka gives her a salute. “What we thinking, Ki? Feeling brave—wanna try some dolphin piranha?”

The little boy looks contemplative and then nods firmly. “Yeah! Can I come order with you?”

“Sure you can.” He leans down to let Kiyo jump onto his shoulders. “All aboard the ship to the checkout, do you think you can remember all the orders I tell you, captain?”

“Yep!” Kiyo grins as they start to walk away, and Toph moves her attention to the little girl looking up at her.

“You know, you seem awful innocent when you’re not screaming about somethin’.” Toph tells her. “You’re not fooling me, though. I’ve seen you when Lin won’t give you a cookie, or when your brother tries to get you to share your toys. I’ll make an earthbender of you yet, we can only hope once you’re old enough that you’ll pick up metalbending way better that your mother ever did.”

Loha looks up at her blind grandmother and blinks, sucking on her pacifier. In a form of response to the police chief, a smell starts to arise from her pants.

Toph groans and tilts her head back. “You’re evil. Kiyo never did this to me—and I swear snoozles changed you right before we left!”

The pacifier falls out and Loha giggles, which Toph does not find even remotely amusing. She hasn’t changed a baby since…well, since Su was a baby. Not because she’s blind or anything, but because she and Sokka have an agreement—she takes anything that comes out of mouth, and he takes anything that comes out of ass. It’s not really a fair agreement but they tossed a coin for it, so she’s within her rights to force Sokka so swap places with her.

But he’s halfway to the counter with Kiyo on his shoulders, and it would be super impractical to try and switch places now so Toph resigns herself to a five minute horror show of changing her granddaughter. She reaches into the bag they brought with them and fishes out a nappy, some wipes and a peg which she’ll use to clamp her nose.

“Keep this up, runaway, and you’ll be demoted to least favourite grandchild. You’ve all been on pretty equal footing until now.” She groans and takes the girl into the bathroom, sitting her by the sink while she puts the peg on her nose.

The entire affair is not painless and very messy since the damn girl won’t keep still—it’s not often that Toph thanks the spirits that she’s blind because she very much doesn’t want to see the explosion that happened in Loha’s diaper if the smell is any indication of how bad it is—but is over relatively quickly, and after that the meal turns out well.

* * *

XI

Lin bites her lip and crosses her arms. She is _not_ comfortable with this, even if she trusts Tenzin not to let anything bad happen, and is half tempted to march up there and call the whole thing off.

For his fourth birthday Tenzin had handcrafted his son a glider. It took him a few weeks to get it completely finished, there are some intricate carvings of air bison on the wood and painted clouds on the wings—it’s beautiful, study and reliable, Lin has to admit, but that doesn’t mean she feels at _all_ comfortable with her son throwing himself off cliffs to learn how to fly.

Knowing that it was something he’d end up doing and _watching_ it happen when he’s so young are two completely different things, and as someone who has previously always had an iron stomach this may be the thing to break that record.

She’s suggested that she use her cables to wait further down the ravine should something go wrong but for once her boyfriend had stood his ground and insisted this must be something Kiyo figures out without her. Air nomads have been flying for thousands of years and he’ll be able to do it too—they’ve practiced all the movements and bending the air currents on the ground for a while now—he’s got everything he needs to be able to be able to fly himself. But that doesn’t mean that, as his mother, Lin doesn’t have the right to be _really fucking nervous_ about it.

Loha’s down for a nap as Oogi drops Tenzin and Kiyo at the top of the highest peak on the island—Lin having found a good spot to watch from.

Too far away for her to hear, Tenzin kneels in front of his young son and puts his hands on his shoulders. “You’re ready for this, Kiyo. You’re a strong airbender and you have all the skills you need; I know you can do this.” His hand moves down the boy’s arm to hold his shaky hand. “But I know it’s scary, and I won’t force you to do anything you’re not ready for.”

Kiyo clutches his glider to his chest. “I can do it, Daddy.”

Tenzin smiles. “I know you can.” He smooths a strand of Kiyo’s black hair out—which Lin has refused to shave despite Tenzin’s protests—and nods to him. “Show me how to hold the glider, let’s get you flying.”

The little boy twists the staff and holds the wings in front of him, mirroring his father who does the same. He’s practiced this a hundred times but that doesn’t mean he isn’t nervous about doing it for the first time—once you’ve mastered flying in general it’s easy to just take off from the ground, but all air nomads start by learning to fly mid-air when they’re young. “Are you ready, Kiyo?” Tenzin asks, glancing to the side.

Kiyo sucks in a heavy breath and nods. “I’m ready.”

Lin’s heart is in her throat as she watches her son sprint of the edge of the cliff and freefalls for a good two seconds without the wind taking him—it feels like it drags out for hours as Tenzin dives off after him.

But then the wind picks up and Kiyo dips ever so slightly to the side, and the glider shoots back upwards.

The metalbender shoots to her feet and cheers for him as he soars through the sky like all the airbenders of his culture before him—she can only imagine how much this means to Tenzin, how much it would have meant to Aang. But the boy who had not so long ago been an infant in her arms is _flying_ —it reminds her why they did this in the first place, reminds her how _worth it_ all this has been.

He keeps it going for about five minutes but gets tired soon enough, and lands close to his mother, stumbling at the impact of the ground. The grin plastered on his face is unforgettable, and Lin is quick to scoop up, tucking the closed glider under her arm. “I was flying!” He exclaims, holding his fist up triumphantly.

“That you were,” Lin smiles, pulling him closer. “I think you’ve earned yourself some extra desert tonight.”

Tenzin lands besides them in that moment with an equally wide grin. “That was incredible, Kiyo. I am _so, so_ proud of you.” He approaches the pair of them and presses a kiss to his son’s temple.

“Mommy said I can have extra dessert.” He says excitedly.

Tenzin chuckles. “Tonight, you get all the dessert you want.”

“And soon Loha can come fly with us!” Kiyo exclaims. “We can have races, and we can fly out to find the baby bisons!”

It’s a very sweet thought, so Lin just smiles as they start to head back to the house. “What did it feel like, Ki?”

The little boy starts to explain it all in his clipped but expressive phrases, and Lin listens as she tries to imagine her daughter in the air with them. She’s not old enough to display any signs of bending yet but somehow Lin can’t quite picture it, as much as she wants to. The thought makes her stomach sink slightly but she refuses to allow that to dampen her spirit. Today is a good day for Kiyo—it’s _Kiyo’s_ day—and thinking about things that could be wrong only takes away from that.

She gives her sons hand a squeeze and heads to the kitchen to find the red bean cakes.

* * *

XII

“Oh, for fucks sake Tenzin,” Lin sighs, shaking her head. “We’ve talked about this.”

He looks a little like a kicked puppy, but she’s pretty sure it’s put on. Lin holds in a second sigh and tries to look sympathetic as she puts her hand over Tenzin’s. “I just don’t understand why you keep saying no! We’re practically married anyway, why not make it official?” He exclaims.

“Because…” She trails off, not sure entirely what to say. “You _know_ why.”

“I really, honestly don’t.” Tenzin replies. “The first time I asked it was because it was too soon. The second time because you didn’t want to make it look like a shotgun wedding, the third because you’d just had Loha and it was a bad time. What now?”

“I just, I don’t…” She runs a hand through her hair and looks away. “I don’t want to be your _wife._ I don’t want to _Mrs Airbender_ , and if we get married then that’s how people will see me.”

He looks a little hurt. “You shouldn’t let other people’s opinions effect your decisions.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Tenzin’s face falters since it comes out a little harsher than she intends. “I…I want, _I need_ to just be Lin Beifong. And we don’t need a piece of paper to define whatever—” She gestures between them. “ _This_ is. I love you; you love me, we have a couple of kids and…that’s enough for me.”

Tenzin bites his lip. “It’s not just about a piece of paper, Lin. It’s…it’s symbolic, it’s showing how much we love each other to our friends and family, it’s like…a rite of passage. And it does mean a lot to me even if it doesn’t to you.”

“We don’t need to, Tenzin. Aren’t things fine as they are?”

“Well _yes_ but don’t you think—” He puts his face in his hands. “ _Fine._ Okay. I don’t want to force you to do anything you don’t want to, and I never will. I just…don’t rule it out completely?”

She nods. “I won’t.” She stands from the chair in the kitchen she’s been sitting and moves over behind him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “And you know that I do love you, right? Marriage doesn’t matter to me but that doesn’t mean _you_ don’t.”

Tenzin smiles. “I know. I love you to.” He takes her hand and presses a kiss to it. “I really do.”

A cry from one of the side rooms interrupts them and Lin groans, recognising it to be one for attention rather than pain.

“I’ll get it.” Tenzin says, pushing himself up.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go.” Lin says, pulling back and heading towards Loha’s bedroom. The girl is stood up in her crib, hands on the bars, screaming with her eyes furrowed shut but suspiciously no tears on her cheeks.

“Mama!” She cries in faux distress, reaching her arms out. Lin picks her up only long enough to lay her back down—the response to this being scrambling and more screaming. “No, up, up!”

“It’s late, you need your sleep.” Lin tells her, letting go only for Loha to clamber back onto her feet and start to propel her leg over the edge of the crib. Lin rushes to push it back over the bar safely—inwardly she thanks the spirits that Kiyo was never like this, because she’s not sure she could deal with two difficult children. “Loha, that’s _enough._ ”

“No, no!” She screeches, stomping her feet against the crib Lin worries she might break it. “Up!”

“ _Loha.”_ Lin uses her Chief of police voice. If nothing else it does have a level of intimidation, which does work, and the girl is startled out of her whinging for a moment. “We’re not going to have these temper tantrums in this house. Now lay down, or you’ll be getting an early bedtime tomorrow.”

“No!” Loha moans and leans against the bars and trying to push her leg back up. “Mama, NO!”

“ _Yes.”_ Lin says, picking her up and laying her back down. “I’m not going to say it again. That’s enough of this.”

“Mama!” Loha cries, a choked sob escaping her and while logically Lin knows it’s a child’s equivalent of screaming in her face and isn’t to be rewarded with the attention she desires, her heart physically hurts. She doesn’t _like_ ignoring her calls, but she knows well enough that Loha of all children needs a regular sleep pattern, and if she can get her to sleep in her crib then she _needs_ to.

Lin turns away, unable to watch it anymore, and is relieved when despite her cries Loha does not stand back up.

“Mama mean!” The little girl shouts as Lin heads through the door and the metalbender finds herself freezing. She knows a girl a little over one years old doesn’t actually mean most of the things she says, and that they all have their moments that ultimately will be forgotten by tomorrow but the anxiety that she _is_ being mean, or too harsh, gnaws at her mind.

 _Close the door. Move away._ She goes into autopilot and gently closes the door behind her and counting her breaths, trying to roll away the tension in her shoulders as her boyfriend watches with a concerned expression from his place at the table.

After a few minutes Loha starts to simmer down, presumably having realised her cries aren’t going to get her any attention and drifting back off to sleep, and Lin hasn’t moved from in front of the door.

Tenzin stands up. “Lin?”

A sob escapes Lin before she can stop it, and a hand rushes to cover her mouth half a second after, her eyes wide in shock as tears dribble down her cheek. Tenzin is right by her side, careful not to touch her before she indicates that she wants to be touched, with a sympathetic and pained expression.

Lin Beifong isn’t a woman who cries often, perhaps mostly because of the level of shit she has had to put up with over the years. Working for law enforcement means that over time she’s heard every insult in the book, she’s not exactly popular with the underworld of Republic City and has never been phased by any of it. So why is hearing a hysterical one-year old call her mean the thing reducing her to tears?

“I’m not—Am I—” She’s a blubbering mess and it’s shameful, if it were anyone but Tenzin with her she would have run for the hills by now. “Am I mean to her?”

Tenzin shakes his head and opens his arms, letting her know she has the option of his embrace. It takes a second, but Lin eventually falls into his embrace, letting herself be vulnerable just this once, letting him be the one hold _her_ up. “No. I promise, she’s just…well, she’s a baby. She doesn’t understand, that’s all.”

Lin nods though she’s not entirely convinced, burying her face against his shirt so he can’t see how red and watery her eyes have undoubtedly become. “I don’t want to let her— _them_ down.”

“You’re not—you _won’t._ You’re a _good_ mother, Lin, and sometimes that means telling them no. It’s never going to be easy but…that’s part of what makes you such a good mother. You’ll always do what’s right for them, whether it’s easy or not, and you care _so much._ ”

Lin pulls away from him and wipes under her eyes with the backs of her palms. “I’m a mess.”

Tenzin shakes his head. “You’re not. You’re human. You’ve seen how much I cry about the kids, to be honest it’s about time we get a little even.” That coaxes a little smile out of her, and she takes his hand, squeezing it gratefully.

She doesn’t thank him verbally, but Tenzin’s known her long enough to see an act of gratefulness from her when they occur.

They sleep well that night.

* * *

XIII

“What do you mean, ‘away’?” Lin crosses her arms and narrows her eyes. Sokka, who is sitting on a kitchen table, has the decency to look a little apologetic at how vague their previous statement was but her mother, who is draped across the ex-councilman’s lap, looks entirely unbothered.

“I mean we’re fucking off. Forever, if things go well.” Toph says.

“We just think it’s time to settle down back home.” Sokka adds. “Don’t get us wrong, we love the city with all our hearts but—”

“Speak for yourself, Snoozles.”

“But there comes a beginning and end to everything in life, and we’ve done everything we’re going to do for this city. Our era is coming to a close, it’s your turn to take over now.” He finishes.

Tenzin has a completely blank expression, but Lin doesn’t think that’s anywhere near enough explanation. “So…what? Where are you going?”

“I need to go back to the South Pole, to the Tribe.” He says. “Katara’s gone back now and…well, I miss my home, and I don’t want to die away from it.” The idea of the man who’s the closest thing Lin has to a father dying is way too painful to even consider so Lin quickly banishes that thought.

“And I’m headed to Zaofu.” Toph says. “Your sister’s been badgering me about it forever and I guess I better give her kids a little attention before I peace out to the spirit world.”

“Neither of you dying anytime soon.” Lin quickly says, channelling her eyes on her mother. “I’m not convinced _you_ can die at all.”

“Ha!” Toph grins, sitting up. “Can’t say I disagree with you.”

“You’re not going together?” Tenzin interjects, finally.

Toph shakes her head. “I’ve spent like 80% of my life with _this one_ trailing after me,” She gestures towards Sokka. “You really think we can’t make it a little while without each other?”

“I love you too.” Sokka rolls his eyes.

“But you’ll come and visit?” Lin asks.

Toph shrugs. “Eh. Probably not.”

“I think this trip will be my last.” Sokka says, with a sad smile. “But I entirely expect you to bring the kids to the South Pole at least once before I’m gone. They’re a quarter water tribe, you know, they deserve to see where the come from!”

Had this departure been something that the two old members of team avatar had made clear for a while Lin probably would have planned for this, would have started to think about when’s a good time in the near future to take a week or so off to visit Sokka and Katara but since this has been sprung on her so suddenly she finds herself pulling out a chair and plopping herself down firmly instead, not able to think much beyond the fact that she’s _really fucking annoyed._

She breathes in heavily through her nose. “And when are you going?”

“My ship leaves in two days.” Sokka says, in a gentle tone that doesn’t really soothe how much it hurts for them to just leave forever with barely any warning. “And Toph’s taking the train over to Zaofu. It’ll take changing a few times, but it’ll only take a day or so.”

Lin _knows_ that this isn’t some sort of favouritism of Su, that her mother has been living nearer Lin since Su moved all those years ago and as a result has spent much more time with Kiyo and Loha than she ever has with Su’s kid but a voice at the back of the head truly wonders whether she’d move out for her if the roles were reversed. It’s a selfish thought, because her nephews and young niece she hasn’t met deserve to know their grandmother just as much as her own kids do as difficult as she is sometimes, but it hurts in a place it really shouldn’t. It hurts in a place of unwarranted jealousy—a feeling that she’s being done wrong, that this isn’t fair.

Tenzin’s father is gone forever, and his mother moved back down to the South Pole a little while ago, but it wasn’t all at once. Katara would never have left if she felt she was needed here with them, and even though her presence was certainly helpful both Lin and Tenzin could see how much she longed to be back with her people with Aang gone and could never deprive her of that because of something as manageable as childcare so had no protests, even helped her move.

She knows that technically the same thing is happening here with Sokka and her mother, but it doesn’t _feel_ the same. Is this what it felt like for Tenzin, when Katara left? Maybe not—Katara, at least, had the decency to warn them that she was thinking of heading back months in advance so they could get used to the idea of them not being around while Toph and Sokka are quite literally fucking off as soon as possible.

Lin clenches her teeth, angry at them, angry at herself for being stupid about it.

“Take the kids out.” She says suddenly, and all three of them look at her in surprise. “If this is the last day you’ll have here then spend it with them. I don’t want to be the one who’ll have to explain to them why Grandma and Uncle Sokka can’t come over anymore, you can take that job if you’re so insistent on leaving so quickly.”

Toph makes an unimpressed noise. “Stop being childish, Lin. You knew this was gonna happen sooner or later.”

“I think Lin means we would have liked a little more warning, for the children’s sake if nothing else.” Tenzin interjects calmly.

“Don’t speak for me!” Lin snaps, though regrets it instantly after for how Tenzin’s face falls. She makes a mental note to apologise to him later. “What I _mean_ is that it’s not fair to just piss off and never come back leaving two kids who adore you with no explanation. What I mean is that you _owe_ them that, so you will do it, and not leave all the difficult stuff to me as usual.”

“I’m sorry, Lin.” Sokka says. “And of course we’ll explain it all to the kids—don’t worry about a thing. And I’m also sorry about how spur of the moment this must feel I…well, I guess it is a little spur of the moment if I’m being honest.”

Toph doesn’t say anything this time, though Lin imagines if she did it would be something on the lines of ‘grow up’. Ironic, since Lin’s always been the responsible one, even when she was a child.

Lin looks out the window to where Kiyo is flying with his glider all over the courtyard while his sister seems to have taken shine to a muddy puddle— _why does she ruin every set of clothes I put her in?—_ and feels her heart soften as her son lands and gently pulls her away from it. Kiyo is _such_ a good boy and the departure of his grandparents will hurt him the most, since he’ll remember them far more than Loha ever will.

“He’s going to be so upset.” Lin mutters, just loud enough for everyone else to hear.

Sokka and Toph don’t reply, but for the first time Toph’s expression morphs into something resembling guilt.

* * *

XIV

Loha’s almost two when she and her brother come across the scrolls underneath their parents’ bed.

Technically their not supposed to touch anything in their parents room unsupervised but Loha has never listened to their parents, and as much as Kiyo was insistent they go and play somewhere else initially he too is intrigued by the portraits of various people rolled in dusty scrolls.

“That looks like grandma!” He exclaims, holding up a rather ornate painting of a young Toph in all her Beifong finery. He then frowns. “No, it can’t be. Grandma would _never_ wear that.”

Loha tugs a binder out from further out under the bed and opens it out. She giggles and points to the first picture. “Kiyo, you!”

Kiyo frowns. “My hair isn’t that crazy!” He smooths it out self consciously and narrows his eyes at the words, trying to put his limited reading skills to use. “B-u-m-i-s b-i-r-t-h-d-a-y.” He spells out, not sure what the letters spell or mean. “That’s definitely not me.”

Beneath is a picture of the same spiky haired boy with a younger girl and boy, the first two grin at the camera and the youngest just looks unimpressed. Kiyo giggles. “That’s daddy!”

Loha laughs with him and tries to recreate the expression, sticking out her bottom lip and crossing her arms, her brother laughs a little harder.

Tenzin, who had heard the laughter from his office, steps out to figure out what’s got the children so amused. He stops outside his own bedroom—where the children _aren’t_ allowed to go normally—but decides to listen a little before spoiling their fun.

“And that’s Auntie Su!” He hears Kiyo cry.

“Su, Su, Su!” Loha chants, and Tenzin smiles at the knowledge that his daughter probably has no clue who that is.

“Why do Mommy and Daddy always look so mad?” Kiyo giggles, and Tenzin can hear the flipping of a page that can only be a photo album.

“Because we’re BEIFONGS!” Loha exclaims, inside the room throwing her hands up dramatically. Kiyo lets out another peal of laughter and Tenzin has to bite his lip not to join them, gently pushing the door open.

At the sight of his father, Kiyo scrambles to hide the album behind him, Loha seems entirely unbothered.

“What are you two up to?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing, Daddy!” Loha says, not even looking up.

Kiyo is far too much of an honest boy to flat out lie to his father, unlike his sister apparently, and guiltily puts the album on the floor in front of them. “Sorry, Daddy. We just wanted to look at the pictures.”

Tenzin kneels the floor next to them. “You shouldn’t just go through out things like that. And you shouldn’t lie about it, Loha.” He gives her a stern look and she just blinks. “But…how about we look at them together? I can tell you who everyone is, if you like.”

“Really?” Kiyo grins.

Tenzin nods. “Of course. But this floor isn’t very comfortable, is it?” He picks Loha up and drops her gently on his bed, this seems to please her greatly and she makes a beeline for Lin’s side of the bed while Kiyo can jump up himself with the album clutches to his chest.

“Thank you, Daddy.” He says, opening the book up to the first page. “Who is that with the spiky hair?”

“Ah.” Tenzin sits down next to them and the crowd over the picture. “That would be your uncle Bumi, my older brother. You haven’t seen him since you were a baby, because he’s a general in the—”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter yay lolol


	4. Chapter 4

XV

When a stream of light pours through the window with the familiar groan of bent metal, Lin growls and buries her face in her pillow. For the first time she had thought Su’s old sleep schedule (wake up mid-afternoon, go to sleep mid-morning) might actually do her a favour—though in retrospect it’s her own fault for believing her sister’s timetable might not have matured in almost two decades. Still, she had—perhaps foolishly—allowed herself a sliver of now dead hope.

She hears Tenzin chuckling next to her—no doubt having bene up for hours already in true airbender form—and throws his pillow in his vague direction. “Shut up.” She mumbles unhappily into her own pillow.

“The whole family’s having breakfast together. You might want to think about getting up.”

Lin decides to respond by pulling the blanket over her head. She’s not exactly unfamiliar with early starts—with a full time job and two young children it’s hard not to start the day at the crack of dawn—but she’d thought, perhaps deludedly, that on _holiday_ she might be allowed a couple extra hours to do rest.

That said, this particular location is now one she’d consider worthy of the ‘holiday’ title, for herself at least.

She and Tenzin have long since talked about taking the kids to Ember Island one year, or back to Gaoling to explore their roots but Lin’s never found the time and travelling with a tiny baby is no fun for anyone. Is was the joint efforts of her boyfriend, sister and mother that coaxed her into this week off, in _Zaofu_ of all places.

Her and Su’s relationship is admittedly better, and they’ve been meaning to meet up so Loha and Kiyo can meet Opal for a long time, but perhaps ignorantly it had never crossed Lin’s mind that this would take place in her sister’s city rather than airbender island.

Her sister’s city, that is so _obnoxiously_ Su-like that Lin struggled to believe it was even real upon first arrival.

When Tenzin realises that his gentle prodding isn’t going to get her up, he sends in his truly brutal next best weapon. Both children pounce on her with an onslaught of giggles and Lin makes a noise of displeasure as they roll her over.

“Come on Mommy, we gotta go to breakfast! Junior said that there’s gonna be a special guy to make all the food and it’s always super super tasty!” Kiyo exclaims, gently shaking her shoulder.

Lin groans and winces as Loha treads on a strand of her hair. “I’m hungry!” Her two-year-old adds excitedly, as she steps off her mother’s hair.

“Yeah, yeah.” Lin forces herself up into a sitting position, clutching Loha to her chest to stop her treading on anything else. “Do you want to give me a few minutes to get dressed?”

“You have _one minute._ ” Kiyo tells her in a tone so similar to her own that she has to supress a laugh. Loha nods, crossing her arms as she stands on Lin’s thighs.

Lin supresses a yawn and nods. “Alright—now scram. Go annoy your Father, spirits know he deserves it.”

That prospect seems to excite them so they both shoot off the bed—Lin is proud to watch her son make his sister’s jump gentler with his airbending. For the most part her children are very good friends in a way her and Su never were because of their age gap, and that warms her heart to see. It’s hard to imagine a future where they might not be constantly trailing after each other.

Very reluctantly pushing herself to her feet, Lin stretches her arms out with a satisfying crack and bends the zip of her suitcase open, selecting a pair of grey pants and plain green tunic. Su will likely be disappointed—Lin didn’t miss the pretty Zaofu style dresses her sister has hopefully lined up in the wardrobe—but she’s going to get whatever she can from this ‘holiday’, so if she doesn’t want to wear an tight, uncomfortable dress then she most certainly won’t.

Now slightly more awake, Lin leaves the bed undone and follows the corridor out the front door where Tenzin has Loha balanced on his shoulders as Kiyo zips around them on a sphere of air. He doesn’t look a lot like his father but watching him brings Lin back to her own childhood where her own Airhead thought chasing her on a ball of air would impress her. It did, if only a little, and the look of excitement on Loha’s face is priceless. Her eyes follow his movements like a cat eyeing a feather on a string.

“Are you all ready to go and face my sister?” Lin asks, voice still thick with sleep. Kiyo jumps from his ball excitedly and snatches her hand.

“Yes! Yes!” He punctuates his excitement by jumping up to her head each time, which never fails to amuse his little sister who exclaims in delight. At the back of her mind, Lin wonders whether one day soon Loha will be able to join her brother in that ability. She’s shown no signs of bending yet, but it’s still is early days—the general rule is that if at age five a child still has shown no signs, then they are almost certainly not a bender. She’s just turned two, so no cause for concern.

They hear Su in her dining hall before they see her—far too lively for this time in the morning—so Lin and Tenzin let Kiyo and Loha run ahead to meet her.

“Uncle Tenzin! Aunt Lin!” Junior exclaims, bolting out the door to greet them. “You gotta come quick! Dad’s going to show us all a surprise!”

Tenzin smiles and promises that they’re hurrying, while Lin narrows her eyes sceptically. She’s not a fan of surprises—good or bad—and Su is very aware of this. All she can do for the moment is hope that it’s got absolutely nothing to do with her.

They find their seats in Su’s large dining room, Opal and Loha have been provided with little booster seats so they can see over the table and are making a mess of their chopped fruits. Kiyo looks at a piece of decimated moon peach by his sister with such distaste that Lin points it out to Tenzin, and they laugh about it together. Su, who’s sat on her other side, looks to her.

“Do you like all the fruits? We got a ton of shipments from all over recently, so it’s very much fruit season!”

Lin nods, stabbing a piece of banana. “It’s very nice. Thanks.”

“Did Junior tell you about the surprise?”

Lin’s annoyance radiates with every chew. “You know how I feel about surprises.”

Her little sister rolls her eyes. “It’s not for _you._ It’s for the kids. A little…treat for them, so they’ll bully you into coming back more often. You know that Mom will be gone by the end of the year.”

“Speaking of Mom,” Lin says, glancing around. “Where is she?”

“Still sleeping for sure.” Suyin waves her hand dismissively. “It’s her retirement, she can do what she wants. Or so she’s always telling me. But she promised she’d come down to see the kids at some point, so she will. It’s not like she’s got anything better to do at the moment apart from erecting her own statues around every corner.”

Lin snorts. “I did think the Toph statues around here were a little excessive. But I just put that down to your Mommy issues.”

“ _My_ Mommy issues?” Suyin expression screams incredulity. “That’s rich coming from you.”

“What’s that supposes to mean?”

Before Su can come up with what was sure to be an inaccurate response, Baatar pushes his chair out to stand before them all and clears his throat. “As I’m sure Junior has informed all of you, Su and I have got you all a little surprised planned. It’s a special occasion, of course, with Lin and Tenzin being here for the first time so we’ve worked for the past few weeks on something to really commemorate it with—”

He’s interrupted by the sound of the doors slamming open and Toph, in all her hunched and tired glory, finally makes her appearance.

Kiyo’s eyes light up as soon as he sees her, his uncle forgotten. “Grandma Toph!”

The older woman’s morning expression softens, and she grins, turning to catch Kiyo as he practically leaps on her. “Hey, little airhead. You missed me?”

“Mhmm!” He exclaims. “So, so, so, so much! Mom said you’d be here but when we didn’t see you last night, I was worried you’d got eaten by an armadillo bear or a sabre-tooth moose lion or the unagi!”

Toph musses his hair affectionately. “Nah, I’m indestructible kid. Now was that beanpole you call an uncle saying something, or can we head out?”

Loha, who clearly doesn’t remember her grandmother much but seems intrigued at the new person, exclaims “Beanpole!” in amusement, which sends Opal roaring with laughter. Baatar, to his credit, only flinches a little.

“As I was saying,” His posture seems a little less relaxed since Toph entered the room, and Lin imagines this is something her mother rather enjoys. “If you’ll all come with me to the back gardens, you’ll get to see what we’ve been working on.”

Huan, showing very mild interest, says: “But we’re not allowed back there, Dad.”

Baatar grins. “Now, son, you’ll see why you’ve not been allowed.”

The best thing about Toph’s appearance is that all the children swarm around her, which leaves Lin and Tenzin a little peace to stroll down to whatever part of Su and Baatar’s enormous garden they’re keeping their surprise in. It occurs to Lin that the entirety of Zaofu is technically Su’s garden and almost makes a joke about overindulgence before remembering that her husband essentially owns the entire island they live on.

After a few minutes of walking Loha starts to get tired so Lin agrees to relieve her mother of one child and carry the little girl on her hip. Ever a nuisance, Loha is wriggly and annoyed about being carried and yet also protests at the suggestion of being put down so her parents to their best to tune her out as they carry on talking about how next time Tenzin wrangles her into agreeing to a holiday, she is _definitely_ going to choose the location herself.

“Mommy, look!” Distracted, Loha shaking her arm brings Lin back to the moment and she realises that they’ve all stopped to look at what, admittedly, is a very good surprise for the children. Together, Su and Baatar have made a beautiful, intricate playground made of metal and earth—there are climbing frames and slides and monkey bars for the older boys and some more easily accessible turntables and swings for the little ones. Lin smiles, no complaints needed, as she watches the boys race each other to the climbing frame.

“Down! I want to play!” Loha twists her torso in Lin’s grip which might have been more effective if Lin were not already used to having a prolific escapee daughter.

“Slow down!” Lin tells her, trying to twist her back around. “You can’t just follow your brother, you’re too little I’m afraid. Try and stay near the—”

Loha, face contorted in her struggle, thrusts her fist down in her annoyance and a beam of earth shoots up beneath her. Not quite high enough to push her out of her mother’s grasp, but certainly enough to startle everyone around her enough that Lin’s grip slacks and she can slide out, running to the turntable as if nothing happened.

Lin, after a long moment frozen before glancing to Tenzin who’s matching her expression.

He blinks. “You didn’t…”

She shakes her head. “Not me.”

Somewhere behind them, the sound of Toph exclaiming “Finally! All my money back! Take that, Sokka!” can be heard.

XVI

Aang taught Tenzin everything he knew about airbending—from the philosophy and literature of the culture to the spiritual meditation and defensive combat techniques—in a manner that resonated and enriched Tenzin’s young life. This is something the now adult airbender is very proud of and has been able to pass onto his son. Kiyo, being only five years old, can occasionally become distracted or bored but for the most part is an ideal student. He takes to meditation well, has excellent control of his bending abilities and spends so much time in the air on his glider that sometimes Lin wonders if his real dad was a bird rather than an airbender.

But for all the confidence she has in Tenzin’s teaching, she has absolutely none in her own.

With the knowledge that Loha, like her, is an earthbender Lin knows that the responsibility will fall on her to teach her daughter. It’s the government’s advice that parents dispense from teaching young children bending at all and wait until they get to school and can be taught by a proper instructor, and, in most circumstances, Lin completely agrees with this idea. Parents teaching their kids bending caused more than enough havoc for her in her early days on the force, and she would be very happy to pawn off the early stages of Loha’s earthbending training to another teacher.

She tells herself that this is because, as chief of police, she has a duty to respect the rules as much, if not more, than any other citizen.

Also, internally, because she’d rather not admit to herself that she’s absolutely petrified of training Loha.

But she’ll definitely have to get to it at some point because, government advice aside, both her children are currently home schooled by Tenzin and unfortunately earthbending is the one class he can’t take. Some might think age two is a little young to be enlisted in Tenzin’s ‘schooling’, but if she’s having fun and getting her naps and playtime when she needs it, Lin sees no harm in her learning numbers and colours and shapes in a home school setting.

Tenzin learnt the lessons he’s teaching Kiyo from Aang, and they work well—the entirety of Kiyo’s immersion into air nomad culture has, thus far, been essentially seamless. Lin too was taught by her parent and while she cannot deny that Toph’s teaching methods are effective, she’s not willing to subject her daughter to a week alone, in the pitch black of badgermole tunnels.

Or, at least, not for a few years.

The other problem is that Loha is a far less willing participant than her brother. Kiyo was born with a passion to learn about anything and everything Tenzin tells him, while Loha’s interests lay more in getting on with whatever she wants to do. It’s a little conciliation that she doesn’t take well to Tenzin when he tried to teach her things either, but only a very _tiny_ conciliation.

This whole dilemma is why Lin has dragged her two- and half-year-old daughter out a little further than normal into the island and has dropped into a horse stance. “Loha, I want you to copy me. Legs out, torso down, arms together in front of your chest.”

Apparently deciding to humour her mother for a now, Loha does copy her mother. Lin feels a little surge of confidence rise within her, and smiles. “Good! Legs a little wider—perfect, just like that.”

“Now breathe in.” Loha has participated in a few meditation sessions (which she quickly decided were not for her) so is no stranger to deep breathing and copies her mother. It takes three breaths for her mind to start wandering.

“Earthbending is about your form, and your body. You have to be immovable, unshakable—invincible, otherwise you’ll be crushed.” Lin tells her, sucking another breath in slowly. Loha notices a big daisy in the corner of her eye. “I’m not expecting you to start bending right away, of course—but I think it’s important to start instilling the basics when you’re—”

Loha turns away from her mother completely and starts to skip over to the daisy. Lin feels her hold body tense with aggravation, though reminds herself that getting annoyed will be of no benefit to either of them. “Loha,” She warns. “Come back here now. We’ve barely started.”

The little girl picks the flower. “I see a lot of white daises but do you think they come in other colours, like you get lilies in red and blue and white and yellow?”

“Back in your stance, Loha.”

“Can you put it in my hair?” She completely ignores her mother and runs to her, holding the daisy out. “Daddy puts jasmines in it sometimes.”

For a bald man, Tenzin is surprisingly good at braiding and styling Loha’s hair—which he accounts to having an older sister who trained him up from a young age—but Lin can barely think about that because they _are supposed to be in horse stance._

“Loha.” She repeats, stern enough that she actually gets some attention this time. “Get into your horse stance _now._ Put the flower aside, and we’ll look at it later.”

Loha looks up at her mother with big jade eyes and blinks. “Can we look now?”

“ _Horse stance!_ ”

When she gets old enough, Lin and Tenzin make the executive decision to enrol Loha in Republic City’s Royal Academy for girls. Lin never misses four sessions working on earthbending with her daughter a week, but it’s just easier for all parties if they leave most of her education to others.

XVII

With Lin’s job comes the infinitely complicated unspoken rules of politics and diplomacy that she really doesn’t have the time for. And, in truth, she normally doesn’t have to—Manchu, one of her young detective proteges, is very adept at handling nation representatives and political parties when her own presence isn’t strictly necessary.

That said, there are always a few things that roll around that she can’t avoid. Hence why she’s strapped herself up in the only green qipao she owns and resigned herself to an evening of awkward conversations.

Tenzin, happy in his formal airbender garb, smiles at her. “You look beautiful.”

Lin scowls, lining her eyes with red paint to subtly mirror her Aunt Suki. Spending time with the Kyoshi warriors over the summer as a child are some of her favourite memories, and while she never has the time or desire to wear makeup anymore, she still retains the muscle memory of how to do it well. “I can’t wait for this to be over.”

“It won’t be so bad.” He says, very unconvincingly. “I’ll be there. And you can slink into the corner and hide behind the buffet tables.”

Dropping her angled brush, and satisfied with her work, Lin stands up to her full height with a sigh and smooths the invisible creases in her skirt out. As far as women go, Lin is on the taller side of the spectrum—though with Tenzin standing at a strong six foot two you wouldn’t know it. Still, it’s quite fun to shadow most other women and some men at parties—that will be the one joy she takes out of this experience.

“Are the kids asleep?”

“Loha was out like a light, Kiyo too. Letting them play with the hose was a good call.” Anything to do with water tends to make the kids so excited that they’re exhausted by the time it comes to the evening. Lin only uses this tactic when it’s absolutely necessary, because the muddy mess is also astronomical.

“When did Amala say she’d get here?”

“She’s already in the kitchen, but I doubt she’ll have much of a job tonight.” Lin doesn’t love leaving her kids with acolytes, but as of yet Amala—an older woman—has proved much more trustworthy that that peculiar girl Pema they had before.

“Then I guess we’re set to go.” She sighs, raking a hand through her hair and letting Tenzin open the door for her as they head towards the bison stables.

Tonight’s event is a charity gala looking to bring children in Republic City off the streets. If Lin didn’t feel so passionately about this topic she’d have probably sent Manchu in her place—he loves a gala—but for once it is of genuine import, so she is forcing herself to attend. If the police and extended government aren’t good enough to help the least fortunate in their city then the triads will come looking, and that’s the last thing Lin needs.

Aang’s vision was that their city be a metropolis of diversity and harmony; this is quite far what the reality has become, but Lin’s always felt the responsibility to try and aim for it where she can. So if she has to spend her evening in an uncomfortable dress sashaying around a ballroom and avoiding small talk, then that’s exactly what she’s going to do.

The trip on Oogi is short, and Lin gives him an apple she snuck into her bag when they land with an affectionate scratch. She’s not normally overly fond of the furry beast but he’s excellent to dote on when you want to stall.

Her partner allows her the frivolity for a little while before they head in together. “Did you put your name down for the auction?” He asks, and she frowns.

“What auction?”

Tenzin shakes his head with a small smile. “I should have known you didn’t read the invite. There’s the standard charity auction that’ll start about halfway through, and every attendee is supposed to bring something to be sold.”

“That would have been _great_ to know before we arrived, Tenz!”

He waves his hand in dismissal. “I can change my offer of a bison ride as from the both of us, if you want.”

Lin’s about to agree to that when she suddenly feels a little guilty. This is genuinely a cause she cares about; she should be contributing rather than jumping of Tenzin pimping out his bison. After a moment, and a promise to herself, Lin comes up with a solution she’s happy with. “Put my name with yours.” She says. “But at some point I want to talk to you about an idea I’ve just had.”

“Does this idea happen to be an escape plan?”

Lin rolls her eyes, and then groans as she sees the earth kingdom ambassador stalking towards them through the crowd. “No, but I could use one if you’ve got any bright ideas.”

Tenzin chuckles but offers her no useful ideas, so they separate to mingle around the room for the next hour or so with the unspoken agreement to meet by the canapes table. Lin offers many a terse nod and clipped response, but behind it her mind is racing. It’s her duty to protect the people and peace of Republic City, and while she alone cannot fix everything, she might have just had an idea that’ll do more good than a hundred high society auctions.

They leave that night with a gilded guzheng that neither of them are going to use, but you’re supposed to bid on a few things and to Lin’s surprise everyone else seemed much more interested in a scarf supposedly worn by Avatar Roku than the pretty instrument.

“So what was it that you wanted to talk about?” Tenzin eventually asks her, when they’re halfway back to the island on Oogi’s back.

“There are three large orphanages in Republic City but there’s constant overflow, and there are still hundreds of kids living on the streets—it’s no wonder that the triads grow so much over time, with crime being the only feasible source of income for them.” Lin doesn’t understand what it means to have nothing, really—she was born lucky in the regard. But she does understand, through her work, the horrible positions people can be forced into, and thus is very motivated to help promote change. “The main acolytes house is full of beds that are, for the most part, unused. When the orphanages overflow…I think it might be a good idea to send the kids there.”

Tenzin considers her proposition. “I didn’t think you’d ever consider having our island flooded with children. It doesn’t sound like something you’d be thrilled about.”

“I’m not. Two kids is more than enough for me.” The talk of the third hasn’t come up seriously between then yet, and likely won’t for a little while longer. “But we live in a separate house, and I wouldn’t have to interact with them. It’s just somewhere they can stay until a place opens up, where they can learn how to read and write and count properly with a roof over their heads rather than…well, rather than how to serve a triad.”

“It’s an excellent idea. I think the acolytes would take to it well, I often wonder if they get a little bored as they are.” Tenzin says. “I’ll bring it up with them.”

“And I’ll admit to some ulterior motives too,” Lin continues. “We’re going to send Loha to school, but Kiyo’s still going to be on his own. I think it would be good to have some more kids his age around, and if we can help them at the same time then it’s perfect.”

This idea is implemented about six months later—children who don’t make it into orphanages are filtered in and out of airbender island. Some stay for a few weeks and other for years. Lin doesn’t interact with the children much herself (it’s a whole island, and their house—by her own request—isn’t too close to the main buildings) but it makes Kiyo happy, and everyone else happy, and makes Republic City just a little bit safer.

XVIII

It’s not often that Tenzin gets angry.

That’s part of the reason he and Lin get on so well as far as she’s concerned. He’s the calm and she’s the storm—he’s the good cop to her eternal bad. So when she gets up, armour already secured in place and ready to get her coffee, it’s not hard to figure out he’s seriously troubled.

And it’s not hard to figure out that it’s the newspaper—that he’s just slammed on the table in fury—that’s upset him so much.

“What’s wrong, Tenz?” She probes gently, taking a few steps closer. Her eyes glance towards the paper but he snatches it up before she can read whatever it is that’s bothering him so much.

He closes his eyes and sucks in a deep breath, trying to release the tension in his shoulders. After a long moment he says: “Nothing.”

Lin takes a gulp of coffee and raises an eyebrow. “Right. So you won’t mind me taking a look at that paper, then?”

She makes to grab it and he holds it out her reach with a panicked expression. “No! I’m…still looking at it!”

“You know I’ll be able to get one on the way to work anyway.”

Her partner sighs and, with a defeated countenance, hands her the paper. The headline, in lieu of any real news, reads ‘ _Avatar’s Granddaughter Not an Airbender: Chief Beifong Ignorant of Her Duties?’._

Lin groans and tosses the paper away. “We knew this was going to happen eventually.” She mutters, putting a hand on Tenzin’s arm. “Don’t let it bother you. They’re just parasites looking for some mediocre entertainment to suck out of us.”

“I can’t stand the way they talk about you.” Tenzin’s ears are red as they always go when he’s angry, which Lin finds rather endearing. “And look!” He turns the page to show Lin a picture of Loha in her horse stance, taken somewhere that was certainly not public. “How did they even get this? That’s just near the cliffs, near our home!”

The photo actually does bother Lin a lot, and she clenches her fist. “We need to get the white lotus to be more thorough. No one steps foot on the island without us knowing about it.” At Tenzin’s obvious aggression, her expression softens. “But, that aside, we can’t dwell on this Tenzin. Journalists love giving me the middle finger, whether it be about this or my job. I’ve got thick skin by now.”

Tenzin shakes his head. “It’s just so degrading. You’re a beautiful, intelligent, compassionate and strong woman Lin—they talk about you like some sort of disgraced socialite. It kills me that they paint you this way. You shouldn’t _have_ to have thick skin.”

“I’m sorry.” She squeezes his hand.

“You’re the last person who should be sorry, Lin. I am really considering—”

“Daddy?” He’s interrupted by Kiyo running into the kitchen with his glider in his hand, out of breath from a morning in the air most likely. “Are you coming? You said we could go see the new calves.”

Lin gestures for him to go and he does, albeit reluctantly.

Once he’s gone, Lin casts another glance towards the paper and then scrunches it up, throwing it in the trash. She heads to work as soon as one of the acolytes arrives to watch Loha and doesn’t think about it for the rest of the day—though suspects that her detective’s particularly hard concentration that day may not be a coincidence.

She and Tenzin have a conversation with the white lotus and they hone down on security. Even so, Lin picks a different spot—more central—to train with her daughter from then on.

XIX

Hearing crashing in her bedroom mid-morning is never a good sign and is more than enough to trigger an alarm in Lin as she almost trips over her office chair to dart towards the sound.

The sound of children giggling is enough to assure her once she arrives, though is less than impressed to find Loha and Kiyo together on the floor covered in makeup having spilt a jar of powder over the floor. Lin crosses her arms. “What have we got here, then?”

Kiyo, not having noticed her, jumps so high in shock he almost hits the ceiling, smiling at her guiltily. Loha, not even getting up, has none of her brother’s anxiety. “It was Kiyo.” She says, though the chewed lipstick she’s holding would suggest otherwise, and Lin has no allusions to the fact that her son has probably been cajoled into the activity in the first place.

“What have I told you about lying?” Lin says, her tone severe enough that Loha has the decency to look a little ashamed.

“I’m sorry Mommy, it was an accident I promise! I know we’re not supposed to be in here, but Daddy did a lesson about the past Avatars yesterday and…” he trails off, the thick foundation slopped on his cheek not quite enough to disguise his embarrassed flush.

“We wanted to look like Kyoshi!” Loha exclaims pushing herself up on her feet. The smears of red lipstick and eyeshadow around their eyes suddenly make a lot of sense. Lin sighs internally—she’s going to give them a proper punishment for this, and then a dustpan and brush to clean up after themselves, but she also finds herself rather amused. It’s the kind of story she’d like to tell in twenty years from now to shame them publicly.

They do dutifully clean up the room and spend the rest of the day inside—which causes a couple of tantrums but nothing Lin’s not used to—and for the next week the entire thing is forgotten. But at about three in the morning a thought circles Lin like an angry hawk so ferociously that she can’t get it out, so she lights and candle and writes a letter.

She gets a response the next week, and chuckles to herself when she reads it. Tenzin leans over her shoulder chewing on half a rice cracker. “Who’s that from?”

Lin slaps his shoulder. “Mind your own business.” Tenzin pulls back but gives her a hurt puppy look that makes Lin groan. “Stop looking at me like that. Loha’s gonna pick it up and she’s already got way too many strategies.” He casts his dramatically solemn gaze to his rice cracker and takes a feeble nibble. Feeling her resolve crack, Lin rolls her eyes and sets the letter down.

“I invited Aunt Suki and Ty Lee to the island, if you must know.” She tells him. “Loha and Kiyo were trying to dress up as Kyoshi a couple weeks back and…well, I thought it would be good to know a little more about the earth side of their ancestry. We grew up with Kyoshi warriors, and I think it would be good for them to do so too.”

Tenzin smiles. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because they hadn’t said yes. I wasn’t sure they’d want to travel at all, and it’s not like I can get any time off for a long time yet.” She says. “But they’re coming, so that’s that.”

“I’ll certainly look forward to it.”

Of all the children of team avatar, Lin has always been the closest of the Kyoshi warriors likely because of her earth kingdom heritage. It’s true that as a general rule they are non-benders, but really they’ll accept anyone whose committed to Kyoshi’s vision of peace and a young Lin Beifong was no exception. It was nice to get some training that wasn’t her mother throwing boulders at her blindfolded for hours on end, and she hopes that her kids will get that one day too. She knows that Tenzin’s education included very little about the water tribes despite his mother’s heritage because of how invested Aang was in raising an airbending son, but Lin has no interest in neglecting her own children’s education on both their cultures regardless of what types of bending they have.

It should perhaps be a little more awkward than it is that she and Suki were so close given that Sokka, her ex, has a relationship with her mother but it never had been. It’s quite telling about how much friendship means to Suki, and also about how Sokka’s type is earth nation woman who can kick his ass.

The thought brightens Lin’s mood immediately, and she heads towards the acolyte’s dormitories to inform them of the impending visitors.

Nothing is more amusing that Kiyo and Loha’s face at the sight of Suki emerging from her boat in the full Kyoshi regalia. Both children squeal in excitement, Loha screaming at Tenzin to look because it’s Avatar Kyoshi! Back from the dead! And Kiyo beaming so wide Lin’s worried his face might crack.

Suki chuckles good naturedly, her grey-streaked hair shorter than it used to be, and approaches them with matching enthusiasm.

“Are you the Avatar?” Loha asks, starstruck.

“I’m afraid not.” Suki tells her, kneeling down to her level. “But I think _you_ might be his granddaughter.” She boops the little girl’s nose, and Loha giggles.

“Where’s Ty Lee?” Lin asks, glancing over to the boat.

Suki rolls her eyes. “She’s doing a face mask and can’t come out until the mud has properly absorbed. She’s be a little while yet, but she promised less than fifteen minutes. She’s loaded up the boat with tons of presents for you all too.”

Loha doesn’t let that slide for a second. “Presents? For us, Miss Kyoshi?”

The older woman laughs and glances back down. “Yes for you, little tigerdillo. And how about you call me Aunt Suki instead? Since I’m not really Kyoshi, as grand as I’m sure that would be.”

“You really didn’t have to bring anything.” Lin says, but is smiling gratefully.

Suki waves her off. “Nonsense! It’s been far too long since we’ve come to visit, we figured we owe you some cool stuff by now.”

Kiyo doesn’t say anything but glances at the warrior with awe. Noticing this, Lin squeezes his hand to encourage him though knows he likely won’t anyway—over the years he’s become more of a quiet child around strangers, though no doubt within the next hour he’ll be regaling his new aunt with he and Loha’s escapades while begging for stories from Suki.

Lin glances towards Tenzin who beams right back at her. Yes, this was an excellent idea.

“You just look so cute!” Ty Lee gushes, fixing the headdress on Kiyo’s head. “I could just eat you up!”

Kiyo beams back at her, jumping up and glancing over his new getup excitedly. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting exactly when his new aunts told them they were getting presents—and the typical mochi, books and toys combination is more than welcome—but on top of all that he and his sister have been provided with their own Kyoshi warrior armour, and that’s enormously exciting. He glances in the mirror and can confirm that Ty Lee does the makeup a lot better than when he and Loha tried with Mom’s lipstick a few weeks ago.

“Do I look like a proper warrior?” He asks, and Ty Lee looks like she could melt.

“Yes! A proper Kyoshi warrior!” She pulls him into a hug, her braid swinging around in her contagious excitement. “I might just have to smuggle you back home, you’re just _too precious!”_

Kiyo giggles and hugs her back, enjoying the kind of overwhelming affection he’s not used to. His Mom gives him hugs too, of course, but never quite as often or dramatically as Aunt Ty Lee—it’s not something Kiyo thinks he would like all the time, but for now it’s nice.

“Daddy says that Air Nomads aren’t supposed to be warriors, but Grandma Toph says I’ve got battle spirit in my blood.” He says, pulling back. “Does that mean I can both?”

Ty Lee smiles. “It means you can be whatever you want to be. You’ve got waterbender in your blood too, from your Gran Gran—and they’re healers _and_ warriors. I’m originally from the fire nation, but now I live in the earth kingdom with all my real sisters, and I’m the happiest a person could be!” She puts her hand on his shoulder, squatting down to his level. “We’re all born somewhere, and it’s important to appreciate where we come from, but we’re all still so unique and special that we can carve our own paths too.” She pauses for a moment, and then grins. “Which means you can come over to Kyoshi island and be your adorable little self whenever you like!”

He giggles and she winks at him. “I’ve got an airbender Grandpa, a waterbender Gran Gran and an earthbender Grandma. I’m almost the full set!”

“Who knows, you might just well be.”

He frowns. “Do you think my Mommy’s Daddy was a firebender?”

Ty Lee shrugs. “I’m not sure that anyone really knows, except your Grandma Toph. But she lived in Republic City where there’s a little bit of everything, so I’d say it’s a very real possibility.”

He grins. “That would be so cool! I’d come from every single nation all at once!”

“That would be very cool.” Ty Lee agrees, offering him a high five that he enthusiastically returns. “Now, didn’t your Aunt Suki and I promise you and your sister a proper Kyoshi warrior lesson? We better not keep them waiting.”

He nods quickly and takes her hand as she leads him outside.

Later, they take a photo together—both children tired from a whole day of wrestling each other (which Tenzin isn’t completely thrilled about, and Lin considers healthy, friendly competition) and it stays on the icebox for years and years to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay! another part finally! feel free to throw suggestions for future escapades that our fave family can get up to in future, i've got our fave waterbending avatar featuring next time !


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